The Descendants of Hecate
by limegreen124
Summary: The Giant War and the war between Greeks and Romans has ended with many unwanted deaths, but Jason, Frank, and Hazel depart for New Roman and things go back to normal. For two years everything is calm, until Chiron calls The Seven and Nico together once again, this time to protect a boy named Harry Potter, who is in bigger danger than anyone realizes.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everybody! So I decided to write this story about 5 seconds ago to avoid reading my boring summer reading for school (which is bad idea in hindsight but I'll burn that bridge when I get there). This is your average crossover, the seven plus Nico are sent to Hogwarts in order to protect Harry from you-know-who. I hope you all enjoy it :)**

**READ THIS!**** This story takes place TWO YEARS after the giant war and during Harry's 5****th**** year, just so you're not confused.**

**Disclaimer: No matter how badly I wish and pray, the closest I will ever get to owning anything from the PJO and HP franchises is owning the books and a few t shirts (basically I own nothing).**

_Leo_

I was in the workshop when Chiron called for us, as if saving the freaking world wasn't enough.

I spent most of my time down there, just pounding away at the metal. I would make new weapons, repair old ones, and make little upgrades for Cabin Nine, even making little things that really severed no purpose. I would do anything anyone asked me to do, and I did it with a smile on my face, because it helped me focus on the present, and not dwell on the past.

We all had seen some stuff that nobody, let alone kids, should ever see in their lives. We barely managed to stop Gaea from awaking, it was amazing that we all made it out in one Piece. We barely lived to tell the tale, but the worst stuff happened when we got home.

We barely made it in time, when we got back to Camp Half Blood the Greeks and Romans were in full on war. Nico, Reyna, and Coach Hedge managed to get the statue to the camp, but the problem was, nobody really believed that it was the actual statue.

A lot of the Romans thought that it was a fake, that I had made it to trick the Romans into letting down their guard so the Greeks could have a flawless victory.

Well, I shouldn't say that a lot of the Romans thought that it was a fake, in fact I think most of them thought it was real. It was Octavian who believed that I had made it to trick the Romans, I wasn't too hot in his eyes, and he refuses to believe anything that goes against his views. Unfortunately, the one pessimist was the leader of the army, and Romans are good little soldiers.

When the three got there, Reyna was called a traitor to the Romans. Octavian accused Reyna of abandoning them when they most needed it, and he accused her of helping the Greeks.

I'm not going to ramble on and on. Long story short, when we got there they were already in full combat. There were already many causalities on both sides and since apparently our _ginormous floating ship_ wasn't enough for the armies to realize that we were back, we had to come down and physically stop the fighting.

What we saw wasn't pretty. I don't remember much to be honest, but I do remember seeing Jason freeze in horror, which he never does, especially in the middle of a battle, when he saw Reyna's lifeless body sprawled out on the ground. I do remember seeing Coach's eyes light up when he saw us. And I also remember that light fading when a knife pierced his chest from behind a second later.

We eventually got control of the situation with minimal damage to the camp. Everything was sorted out within a week. Then the Romans left, along with Jason, Franks and Hazel. Jason had taken Reyna's place as Praetor, which is what she would have wanted. Not to mention Frank was Praetor too, and Hazel didn't want to leave her boyfriend. They wanted to stay, but they couldn't.

I spent a lot of time comforting Piper, me and her were closer since we went on that first quest together. She IMs Jason almost every day, but it's still hard for her. When she isn't taking her anger out on the poor dummies in the training room, she helps take care of Coach's son, which we didn't know of until after the battle.

That battle was about two years ago. After the camp was back up and running, I told everyone of my little journey to Calypso's island, and how I made an unbreakable oath to go back for her. Everyone was a little surprised, especially Percy, but he was also looked extremely pissed off at the mention of her name, let alone the fact that I was going to get her off that island.

I don't know why Percy was so mad about it, but I went anyway. The remaining members of the Seven that were still at camp wanted to come with me, but I had to do it alone. I looked for months and found nothing, so I came back to camp, missing home and my friends, but that didn't mean that I was done looking for her.

I was pounding one of Annabeth's half-brother swords that he broke in practice when I heard the door slam open.

My head shot up when I saw one of my half-sisters. She was a newbie, about nine years old, she had only gotten here a few weeks ago and she had gotten claimed right away. I have to say I was surprised that she belonged to us at first, because she was actually very pretty, unlike a lot of my extended family. But the moment she stepped inside that workshop was the moment I ate my words, the things that she could do with a hammer were incredible, even on my standards.

"Chiron wants to see you." She told me in a sweet voice.

I flashed my award winning smile. "Tell him I'll be right up. Oh and don't forget to mention that whatever it is, I didn't do it."

She laughed and spun on her heels and ran out the door. The moment she was out of sight my smile faded and I dropped my head on the table.

_What does he want now?_ I thought to myself. I pushed myself up and pounded the sword once more, finishing it up. I dunked in the water and listened to it sizzle, the best sound in the world. I pulled it out and examined my work. It was looked better than it did before it was broken, as usual. I cleaned up my work, picked up the sword and jogged out the door.

Before I started to the game room, where we have all of our important meetings, I made my way up to Cabin Six. I knocked at the door and to my luck, the sword's owner opened the door.

"I present to you thy sword, young grasshopper." I said in my best old Chinese man accent and bowed as I held it out for him.

He ripped it out of my hands as his eyes got wide with excitement.

"WHOA!" He exclaimed, looking like he was about to exploded.

"Thanks Leo, you're the best!" He beamed before he ran inside to show his brothers and sisters.

"Hey, remember that a sword like that can make the new kids do whatever you want!" I yelled after him, but he wasn't paying attention.

I closed the door and started to jog to the game room. A few kids waved at me as I jogged by and a few girls giggled. What can I say, saving the world has that effect on the ladies.

I kept jogging till I game to the door of the game room. I slammed it open, threw my arms in the air and shouted "Never fear, Leo is here!"

All heads turned to me. Percy held down a laugh while Annabeth rolled her eyes. I smiled even bigger as I walked next to Piper, who flashed a warm smile.

"So let's get this party started!" I exclaimed, rubbing my hands together.

"We need to wait for everyone to get here." Chiron told us.

"Who else is coming?" Percy asked, confused.

"They'll be here anytime now." Chiron explained, though it really didn't answer the question. Then as if on cue, a loud thud came from behind us as we turned to see four figures fall to the ground.

"Thank you Nico, and hello to all of you, great to see you all again." Chiron said Jason, Hazel and Frank, who were now standing up.

"Jason!" Piper squealed, before she ran into Jason's arms, barely giving him enough time to register where she was coming from. Nevertheless, he embraced her in a tight hug, burying his face in her neck.

None of us have seen the three since the war. I ran up to Hazel and pulled her into a quick hug, rocking her side to side, almost knocking the both of us over in the process. After that we all did our got hellos in, Piper smacked Jason on the arm.

"What are you doing here, and why didn't you tell me you were coming!" She exclaimed, though she didn't look to mad at all.

"Chiron asked us to come, so Frank and I got people to take our places while we were gone. And I asked Chiron not to tell anyone, 'cause I wanted to surprise you." Jason explained. Piper then threw herself into Jason's arms again, and then they kissed, and kissed, and kissed…

"Get a room." I coughed. They pulled apart as Jason said, "Great to see you to Leo."

"Now I have to admit, it is great to see you all in the same room again after so long, you to Nico." Chiron beamed, Nico giving a slight head nod.

"Now I know you all want to know why I called you here." Chiron said, sounding a bit more serious. I think we all knew why we were there, but we just didn't want it to be true.

"There has been another prophecy." He explained, I'm not quite sure, but I think that everybody groaned.

"Seriously, another?" Percy asked, sounding 100% done. I don't blame him, he and Annabeth have been involved in more prophecy's than I can imagine. The Fate's just never give them a break.

"Yes I'm sorry, I wish I didn't have to send any of you out there again, but it involves every one of you." Chiron apologized.

"What is it?" Frank asked.

Chiron cleared his throat:

"_Eight shall travel across the sea,_

_To the land of witchcraft and sorcery._

_There they will learn and seek to protect,_

_The boy who keeps the truth kept._

_Smart, brave, loyal, and cunning,_

_One year will decided whose fate will be coming._

_For neither shall live while the other survives_

_One shall see through the master's disguise."_

We all stared at Chiron, for that was one of the weirdest prophecies we have heard in a while.

Of course I was the one to break the silence.

"Well that was a long one." I said, as always pointing out the obvious.

"Wait what does '_the land of witchcraft and sorcery'_ mean?" Hazel asked, when I suddenly remembered that she had been called "the witch's daughter' for most of her childhood.

"Demigods were never supposed to find out about this." Chiron said, shaking his head.

"Find out about what?" Annabeth asked.

"Sit down children." Chiron told us. That's the thing about Chiron, when he tells you to do something, you just do it, and you don't question it. Sometimes I wondered if he had charmspeak as well, but he's just that kind of person. Needless to say, we all found a seat.

"Thousands of years ago, we needed help to protect the human race. There weren't many Demigods back then, and our forces were weak. Keep in mind these were the times before Hercules. Anyway, it was decided that Hecate would give a blessing to the most deserving mortals around the planet, in order to help defend it from monsters. These people were given the ability to control magic. These people helped defend the Earth, and did it well to. The Gods of Olympus decided not to tell the demigods, for pride reasons. They shielded them with the mist and they kept their secret very well. Ever since then they have breed and their numbers have grown. Today, there are whole societies of them, located all over the world. They have their own way of life and their own way of living, much like with demigods. They call themselves witches and wizards." Chiron explained.

"Wait, so you're telling me that witches and wizards are real, like with wands and 'Abracadabra' and stuff like that?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Yes, people almost found out about them a few hundred years ago too. I'm sure you heard of the witch hunts in school." Chiron told us.

"Wait those people were actually onto something?" Piper asked.

"Yes they were, and even that spell Leo mentioned earlier 'Abracadabra' is actually taken from a real spell that they use." Chiron explained.

"Seriously?" Percy asked.

"Yes, it is a spell that mortals would unfortunately hear often a few hundred years ago." Chiron informed us.

"What spell was it?" Jason asked.

"_Avada Kedavra_, the killing curse." Chiron said bluntly.

"Sounds fun." I said.

"Chiron, how do you know about all this?" Annabeth asked.

"I was there when they were created, and I keep in touch with a wizard named Albus Dumbledore, who keeps me informed of what is happening."

"Does this guy know about us?" Percy asked.

"Yes, most wizards aren't aware of our presence, but he is no ordinary wizard." Chiron said with a smug smile. I looked around at everyone else, who looked about as stunned as I felt.

"I have known about this prophecy for a while and I knew immediately where you all have to go. There is a school in Britain called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where young witches and wizards learn how to control their powers. You all will be attending that school at the end of the summer, and I have already enrolled you as exchange students. Albus Dumbledore just so happens to be the headmaster of that school, he will be looking after you all to make sure you are all right." Chiron explained. Nobody talked for at least 10 seconds.

"There's a wizard school named after a pig's skin problems?" I asked. Everyone broke out into laughter, including myself. Even Chiron gave a chuckle.

"Yes I know that the name is rather odd, but it is one of the best Wizarding School in the world." He defended.

"Wait, if what you're saying is true, wouldn't it be kind of obvious that we don't have any powers?" Annabeth asked. Which made complete sense, if we couldn't perform a spell, it would be kind of obvious that we weren't wizards.

"We took that into consideration, and Hecate agreed to bless you all with the full powers of a wizard." Chiron explained.

"Wait so we get powers!" I yelled jumping out of my seat, this day just kept getting better and better.

"Yes you all get powers, but there is a small price." Chiron explained, everyone had just looked like they were given the winning Powerball ticket, but our smiles slowly started to fade.

"What price?" Nico asked.

"You are going there to protect a boy named Harry Potter, reasons to which will be explained later. In order to keep an eye on him, it is best that you would all be in the same grade as him. The only problem is that he is 15 years old. As you all know, most of you can no longer pass as a 15 year old. So in order to give the best protection to Harry possible, all of your appearances will be altered temporarily so you will look like you did when you were 15." Chiron explained. There was yet another silence as we all let it sink in.

"You can't be serious." Frank breathed.

"I know that it is the last thing that you want to do, and I don't want it to be done either. You will all be as mentally old as you are now and no memories will be taken away." Chiron explained once more.

I had felt that a brick hit me. 15 was not a good time for me. Since those awkward and scrawny years, I had grown taller, I was almost up to Percy now and I had finally started to build some muscle. Now I would have to go back to looking like that ugly, scrawny kid.

"It's temporary right?" Percy asked.

"Yes." Chiron confirmed

"I mean, if we have to…"Jason said, looking about as disappointed as I felt.

"Thank you all. You will be leaving tomorrow evening, Albus Dumbledore has agreed to take you all to a safe house in Britain. There you will have about a week to learn the spells needed and learn their way of life. At the end of the week you will be transported to another safe house where you will be staying with Harry and his friends, getting to know them. Do not tell anyone about yourselves unless you are told to do so by Dumbledore or if you absolutely need to. Understood?" Chiron asked.

"Understood." We all murmured back.

"Great! You all have a trunk placed in your room that you should use to pack all of your belongings, and get some rest, you have a long day tomorrow." Chiron said with a smile.

"Um, we kind of left our trunks back at Camp Jupiter." Frank told Chiron.

"Not a problem, Nico do you think you can go get them real quick?" Chiron asked Nico.

"Sure." Nico said, and without another word, he faded in the shadows.

"Alright then I'll let you all get caught up with each other. Be back here tomorrow after dinner with all of your things and then you will depart." Chiron said, before he walked out of the room.

We all stood there for a minute, not saying anything, lost in thought. After a while Percy broke the silence.

"Does anybody else really believe any of the crap that just came out of his mouth?" He asked to nobody in particular.

"I was thinking the same thing. I mean a Wizarding school named Hogwarts? And what kind of name is Dumbledore?" I asked. I mean seriously, if someone came up to you and said "Hey guess what wizards are real!" most people would just laugh in their face and call you an idiot.

"I don't know guys, this is Chiron we're talking about, and he doesn't joke around when it comes to prophecies. I know that it's farfetched to believe everything that he said, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt and just roll with it." Annabeth said, obviously lost in deep thought, probably trying to make sense of everything.

"And what did the line '_smart, loyal, brave and cunning'_ have to do with anything?" Jason asked.

"No clue." Hazel breathed.

"Well let's just forget about all that for now, I mean were all here! The mighty Seven, who stopped Gaea from awakening and saviors of Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter, together once again! Let's just forget the fact that there are witches and wizards and that we'll be awkward teenagers again by the day after tomorrow, and just be have fun for one night!" I said jumping out of my chair, trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, I mean hey, there is another prophecy but let's just be kids tonight. Get caught up and have fun! We could never do that when we were on the Argo II and I know that half of us aren't exactly kids anymore, but who cares, we never got to be them in the first place!" Jason exclaimed, taking Piper's hand and smiling.

And then we talked and got caught up. Nothing much has changed, Jason has gone on a few quests since we last saw him, one with Frank and Hazel, but they weren't anything big. Percy Annabeth and Piper went on one while I was out searching for Calypso. But we haven't been involved in much of anything, which was nice for a change. After we all got caught up, we did whatever we wanted. We all told funny stories about the past two years at camp, and we laughed, we laughed until our sides hurt.

When Nico returned with the trunks (I don't know why they aren't just called suitcases), we had a Ping-Pong ball tournament filled with high tensions, screaming, and laughter. It was nice to use that table for what is was actually meant for, and not war strategizes. It came down to a heated match against Jason and I, Greek vs. Roman, and I had the pleasure of annihilating him into a shameful oblivion.

After that we walked around camp and spent the rest of the day together. We spared in the training room, we took a swim in the lake with all of our clothes on and just had fun. We didn't realize that we missed dinner until it got dark. But we shrugged our shoulders and made our way towards the campfire, where we all sang louder than normal, and the fire had burned bigger and brighter than it had for a few years. Seeing the smiles on all of their faces, truly happy smiles, was a sight that I rarely got to see, and it was one of the best sights in the world.

After the campfire, we all said our goodnights and went to our cabins. Jason Frank and Hazel slept in their parent's Greek cabin, and Frank was lucky that they happened to have one spare bed in Cabin Five.

When I got to Cabin Nine I flopped down on my bed, feeling like I was on cloud nine. For the first time in years I had a genuine smile on my face, not one I used as a cover-up. Apparently my brother Caleb noticed a difference between the two.

"You seem unusually happy tonight." He told me, kicking my bed to get my attention.

"When am I not happy?" I told him, pushing myself into a sitting position.

"That's a good question…Hey what's that?" He asked my, pointing to my new trunk at the end of my bed.

"A magical trunk that possess the power to turn you into a fairy." I told him, and with the news that I got that day, who knew, it probably did.

"Yeah right, night Valdez." Caleb said, flopping into his own bed.

"Night." I replied, laying back down on my pillow. I stared at the ceiling, remembering everything that Chiron told me that day. It was a lot to take in, just the fact that there was _another_ secret society of unusual people out there, was enough to make my head spin.

_If our two worlds were just stories, this would be one hell of a crossover._ I thought to myself, before I turned over in my bed and closed my eyes.

If I knew what was going to happen in this new world, I wouldn't have slept so easily.

**I saw the opportunity, and I f*cking seized it. (I love breaking the forth wall)**

**I hope you all liked it, and I AM SO SORRY ABOUT COACH AND REYNA! I love both of those characters, but I wanted to show the true horrors of war, and that even the strongest don't always make it out.**

**And I know the rest was a little boring since basically the entire chapter was explaining things that you all already knew, but I figured that the characters need it to be explained to them. **

**And I want everyone to know that the whole aging-the-characters-down idea ****WAS NOT MY ORIGNAL IDEA****. The idea belongs to the user t0biastrisf0ursix, who has written an amazingly well-written HP/PJO crossover that you should all read like right now.**

**Every bit of feedback is greatly appreciated, and I will update soon :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow guys, thanks for the feedback! And if you actually came to read the second chapter of this, I'm really glad you liked it! **

**So enough talking, on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I already pointed out I don't own HP or PJO. Now I just want to make it clear that I don't own Hollister or Game of Thrones either (it'll make sense later).**

_Annabeth_

"PERCY!" I screamed for the millionth time, even though I knew he was long gone.

It was pitch black. No, not the darkness you get in the middle of the night, even then you can still see what's in front of you, and you can still reach out and turn on the light.

This was pitch black. The only reason why the word black is being used there is because there is no color that is darker than black. But the thing is, black is a color, black means that there was something there. There is no such thing as color here, black is the best description I can give, because words cannot describe the empty void that I saw.

I was screaming and crying, wondering around blindly, searching hopelessly for Percy.

Percy, the love of my life. He willingly feel into the place where nightmares are real, so that he could save me. Percy, the boy who had his memories wiped by a goddess and still managed to never forget me. He searched for me, even though he didn't know who I was. He was the reason why I was alive today, and he is the reason why I didn't give up on life long ago.

And now he was gone, and he wasn't coming back.

I don't mean gone like dead gone, he chose to leave me behind. He probably saw that I was blind and useless, or maybe it was because he thought it was hopeless to try. But he had left me behind, he had left to go save himself.

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!" I cried into the void, but no answer came back. I was in hysterics, I could feel the tears streaming down my face, I could feel the hard rocks against my feet, and I could hear the shrieks of laughter from the monsters in front of me.

I could feel the monsters rake their claws across my stomach. I could feel the pain and the blood that poured out from my wounds. I could feel the ground hit me as my legs failed. I could feel my painful breathes getting shorter. I could feel the life fade out of me as I cried silently.

But I never felt Percy. He had abandoned me so he could save himself.

Percy, the love of my short and horrible life, had left me to die.

"Annabeth!"

I felt hands on my arm shaking me. My eyes shot open as I flew up into a sitting position, gasping for breath.

I frantically looked around, ready to attack the first vicious monster that came at me. But there were no vicious monsters, I was in bed back in Cabin Six at Camp.

_I'm not blind_. I thought to myself. Another thing that struck me was that it was bright outside.

_Wow, I actually slept through the night._ I thought again.

Once I realized that there was no immediate danger, I looked down to my stomach to assess the damage. But there was no huge gash in my stomach, there was no blood that had stained my sheets and my t-shirt. Everything was completely normal.

"Whoa, okay you can put the knife down, nobody's attacking you." My half-sister Grace told me with her hands held out in a defensive position. I looked down at my hand and sure enough, I was holding the dagger that I kept under my pillow with a death grip.

"Sorry." I muttered as I stashed my dagger underneath my pillow.

"You were screaming again." She told me. I was actually surprised by that. I was having a scream-free two month streak, the longest since we got back from the war.

I screamed in my sleep for about a year after, it got so bad that Chiron said that I could sleep in Percy's cabin if I had wanted to, because Percy was the only one who could calm me down after I had one, and I think my cabin had had it with the sleepless nights.

I started sleeping back in Cabin Six when I went a week without screaming. Sure I had a few episodes now and them, but they were getting better.

"I'm sorry, did I wake anyone?" I asked.

"Well yeah, but its morning, we needed to get up anyway." She shrugged. I looked around the room and saw just about everyone rubbing their eyes, slowly sitting up. I felt a little twinge of guilt, but it was short lived.

"Hey tell them all I said sorry but I need to go do something." I said pulling myself out of my bed. I didn't wait for a response as I ran out of the cabin, not bothering to put my shoes on.

I ran immediately to Percy's cabin, my heart pounding. If something had happened during the night, or if he had suddenly disappeared again, I don't know what I would do.

I only had to bang my fist on the door once before it swung open. Inside stood Percy, still in his pajamas and with a bad case of bed head, which made him look all the more cute. He knew exactly what was going on, I could tell from the look of concern on his face.

I threw myself in his arms without even thinking, I was so happy that he was there and safe. I buried my face in his neck as I started to hyperventilate.

"Everything was dark, and you left me behind…I was dying and you left…" I cried into his shoulder. I could feel tears forming in my eyes as I remembered the dream and I shuddered. Percy hugged me so tight that I couldn't breathe for a second. He pulled back and cupped my face in his hands.

"I'm right here, I never left you and I will never leave you. It was just a bad dream, I'm right here." He told me. He placed a kiss on my forehead, looking like he was holding back tears himself. I knew that he hated seeing me like this, it tormented him, but he was the only comfort I had.

I willed myself to calm down, and to my surprise it actually worked. I pulled away and whipped my tears, put on the best brave face I could muster up and told Percy "I'll be okay."

And that's when I noticed that _every single member_ of the new prophecy was sitting in the room staring at me.

"It's okay, I get them to." Jason told me after seeing the look on my face. Everyone else nodded in agreement.

I tried to find the words to say something, but Percy spoke first.

"Anyway, is everybody packed for today?" Percy asked, trying to change the subject. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I'm honestly glad that we get more than a backpack on this quest." Leo sighed, sitting back in his chair.

"So who's ready to go back to being 15?" Jason said with fake enthusiasm. The groans were so on pointe I was almost proud.

We didn't do much the rest of the day. We went to breakfast, tried to decipher the prophecy, went to lunch, tried to decipher the prophecy, made sure we had everything we need for our quest, tried to decipher the prophecy. So on and so forth until we got to dinner.

Just in case you're wondering, we didn't get anywhere with the prophecy.

I think all of us were a bit nervous at dinner, I mean we were going to go incognito mode in a world that we knew almost nothing about, and we had to learn everything about their culture and their way of life in about a week's time.

Not to mention, we had to go to a school and not cause trouble AND try to blend in on top of all that.

We all ate dinner and Chiron told everyone that all members of the quest must gather their belongings and report to the game room immediately. So I went back to my cabin, grabbed all my stuff, said my goodbyes and made my way up to the game room.

When I got there, almost everybody else was already waiting in the room. The only one who wasn't there was Leo. I ran up next to Percy, who gave me a comforting smile. He looked calm, cool and collected, but I knew him, he was as nervous as I felt.

"So that leaves Leo, and then were ready to get this show on the road." Percy said.

Right after he said that, the door burst open behind us. Then Leo stumbled in, dragging his trunk behind him.

"Sorry, I forgot to pack a few things and I had to make everything fit." He told us. He was panting for breath as he put all his effort into dragging the trunk into the room, but it only moved a few inches with each tug. Then, giving up on dragging it in, he grabbed the bag by the handle. With great effort, he lifted it off the ground. He swung the trunk towards the middle of the room and it landed with a loud thud.

Leo then joined his trunk, still panting for breath. He looked at us and grinned widely, giving us two thumbs up.

"Leo, what did you pack?" Hazel asked. Leo gave her his famous grin, the one he got when something bad was about to happen.

"Only the things I need." He panted, putting his hands on his knees.

"How much can you possibly need?" Jason asked, staring at Leo like he had two heads. I was surprised he was so shocked, I mean this was Leo. I guessed he forgot how dramatic he could be while he was at Camp Jupiter.

"Alright, we can worry about that later. We need to get this quest started." Chiron told us.

"We will be joined by the goddess Hecate in a few moments, she will then bless all of you with her gift of magic, and in the process all of your appearances will be changed. Again, you will all go back to normal at the end of the quest, but you will be able to keep your powers." Chiron explained.

"After all that is done, you will travel to the safe house by way of fireplace." Chiron told us. I blinked in confusion.

"By way of what?" I asked, making sure I heard him right.

"By way of fireplace. It is a very common method of transportation in the wizard world." Chiron informed us. Nobody said anything for a while, we just stared at him, our eyes the size of saucers.

"Wizards are weird…" I heard Leo mutter to himself. I completely agreed.

"I will explain later, but first I have to summon Hecate" Chiron said, knowing how crazy it sounded. He turned to the alter behind him and started saying a prayer in Ancient Greek. A few moments later, mist (not The Mist, just mist) came out of nowhere stared to cling to the alter. Soon the entire alter was covered in mist so that you could no longer see it, and then the goddess Hecate herself emerged from the mist, like a scene out of a cheap horror movie.

We all bowed down as soon as we saw her. We have all learned that you take no chances with disrespecting a god, if you do, you are about as useful as a pile of ash.

"Are these the children of the prophecy?" Hecate asked Chiron. He gave a slight nod.

"It is great to see you all again, especially you Hazel." The goddess told us as we stood. Hazel blushed and thanked the goddess.

"I will be blessing all of them?" She asked Chiron again. He nodded once more. The goddess then turned to us.

"My people are facing a great threat, one that threatens to destroy their entire civilization. The boy Harry Potter is their only chance of a future, you all must swear to me on the River Styx that you will protect him with your lives, for he is their only hope." Hecate told us.

_This Harry kid must be pretty important._ I thought to myself.

We all swore the oath, knowing that we didn't have much of a choice.

"Now, you come here." She pointed Jason. He walked up to Hecate, and that's when I realized how much he had changed in the past few years. He was still drop dead gorgeous (sorry Percy, its true), only now he was a bit taller, standing at a staggering 6'2. His muscles were more defined, his jaw line was sharper and his cheekbones were more evident on his face. He looked like your average Hollister model with clothes on.

I could see why he didn't want to go back to being 15.

He was now standing in front of Hecate, when she reached her hand out and held it in front of his face. She let her open hand sit there for a second. And Jason being the gentleman that he is, reached out to take it. He froze when a mist started to rise out of her hand.

It wasn't like normal mist, or even The Mist. It was beautiful, it shimmered when the light touched it, it was a mix of so many colors that I couldn't tell you what color it was. Even though it was beautiful, at the same time it was horrifying. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it gave me this feeling like I shouldn't be anywhere near it. It seemed so unnatural and so powerful that even though it was beautiful, it could easily be just as dangerous, it was hard to describe.

I realized then that what I saw was magic in its purest form.

The mist rose off of her hand and gathered into a small clump. Then part of the mist started to float toward Jason like it was being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner.

The mist entered Jason mouth which he had opened just before it started to enter. It wisped into his mouth quickly like a trail of smoke, and Jason looked like he was in some sort of trance. The mist was now completely consumed by Jason, but he didn't move, he just stood there with his head slumped down to his chest and his eyes closed.

I was about to ask if he was okay when he groaned in agony and collapsed. He laid on the ground, shaking like he was having a seizure. Piper screamed his name as she and I tried to race to his side.

"Do not touch him!" Hecate demanded, holding her hand out to keep us away. We all knew better than to defy a direct order from a goddess, so we stood and watched as Jason shook.

It reminded me of the River of Lamentation in Tartarus, watching Percy hopelessly as he was ready to give up on life and drown in that water.

_No,_ I thought to myself. _You will not have one of your stupid panic attacks in front of a goddess._

A few seconds later, Jason had stopped shaking and groaned into the ground. He used all his strength to push himself up, and he raised his head to the goddess.

"It is done. Stand." Hecate commanded. Jason then stood up and almost fell over in the process. He turned to face us, and what we saw was almost shocking.

He looked like Jason, but much younger. He was a few inches shorter, with less muscles. You could tell that he had some, but he was very skinny at the same time. He looked almost exactly like he did when I first met him, except with less dust and both shoes.

"What?" He asked, his voice slightly higher than normal.

"Dude, that is freaky." Leo said, eyeing Jason. We were all stared at him for a moment before he registered what was happening.

"I'm 15 aren't I?" He sighed, though he didn't need an answer. He looked down at his body, examining it for differences.

"None of my clothes are going to fit." He whined. As soon as he said that, I noticed that his jeans were sagging a bit lower around his ankles and his waist and I noticed that his Purple Camp Jupiter was longer than before.

"You can bewitch the clothes to fit later, you come here." She said pointing to me. I felt a surge of fear hit my stomach, but I quickly swallowed it and walked towards her.

She had done exactly what she had done with Jason. When the mist started to come towards me, I didn't realize my mouth was open till it started entering me. I didn't feel anything different at first, but then an extremely strange sensation went over my whole body, I couldn't decide whether it was a good feeling or a bad feeling. I don't know exactly how long that lasted, but I suddenly felt one of the worst pain I have ever felt, worse than breaking my ankle.

I felt my skin being stretched and torn, all of my bones were shifting underneath my skin and I had the worst headache imaginable. It only lasted for a second, because I blacked out as quickly as it came, but it was one of the worst seconds of my life, if you exclude Tartarus.

I don't know how long I was out, but when I woke up the pain was completely gone. I felt extremely weak, and used all of my effort to push myself up. I looked into the face of Hecate, and she gave me a slight nod.

To my surprise I actually managed to stand up. Being very cautious of my movements so I wouldn't fall over, I turned to face my friends.

They froze when they saw me, and I almost did to. Frank and Leo were holding Percy by the arms as he struggled against them. They let him go and he ran to me with a look of terror on his face. He didn't seem as fazed as the others did by my blast from the past, but the one thing that I noticed was that he had to bend down a bit to meet my eye level, which he had never had to do before.

"Are you okay?" He asked frantically. That's when I remembered what happened to Jason, of how he fell to the ground and basically had a seizure. That's probably what happened to me when I blacked out, and that scene probably threw Percy into a panic attack.

"I'm fine, it didn't even hurt." I lied with a shaky breath, I gave him the best smile I could do at the moment and kissed his cheek, then turned to join Jason where he stood next to Chiron. He scanned me up and down, which I gave him a pass for. I don't think he's ever seen me look this young.

Next up was Percy, then so on and so forth until everybody was a younger teenager. Hazel had almost not changed at all, since she was the youngest out of all of us. I felt bad for Frank though, he had turned back into his chubby panda state, and I knew how self-conscious he was about it.

"Very well, I wish you all the best of luck on your quest." Hecate said. She looked all of us in the eye with a look of gratitude, which was saying something considering that she is a goddess, before she blinked out of existence.

There was a moment of silence after she left before Leo broke it.

"Alright, so let's leave before any of the other kids see us shall we?" He said rubbing his hands together. I knew that he had a growth spirt in the past few years, but I forgot how short he was. Before, Leo stood at about 5'10, he was thinner than the other boys, but he did have muscles. Now he stood at about 5'5, and it looked like his old scrawny self.

"Yeah seriously, let's go." Percy said, scratching the back of his head. He didn't look to different, he was about 3 inches shorter, but he still looked a lot like the man he was 5 minutes ago.

"Very well, now as I said before you will be traveling by fireplace. I know that it sounds a bit ridiculous, but it is one of the fastest methods of travel without assistance from others. If you could follow me please." Chiron said, walking out of the room. We all followed him as he made his way out to the dining hall. As soon as we saw some kids sitting at the tables, we instinctively shielded our faces. Most people knew that we were going on a quest, but I don't think anyone knew about the whole 15 thing.

"Hey Leo before you…Leo?" Leo's brother Caleb asked, jogging up to us. He double checked himself to make sure his eyes weren't tricking him.

"What happened in…wait what happened to all of you?" Caleb asked, looking extremely confused.

"We took a quick dip in the fountain of youth, Chiron will explain later." Leo told his brother, not looking him in the eye. Caleb's mouth was hanging open, looking for the right words to say, but we were out of the room before he could say anything.

We made our way up the stairs till we came to the door of Chiron's office. He unlocked the door the door and we headed inside.

The office itself looked no different than normal. We all stood in a clump in the middle of the room and set our bags down at our feet. Chiron reached to his desk and held up a bowl filled with some kind of powder.

"This is a substance called Floo Powder. In a second you will take this a handle full of this and step inside the fireplace. You will speak the address of the safe house very loudly and clearly, and I cannot stress that enough. If you mess up the pronunciation, you could end up in gods knows where with no way back. Once you speak the address clearly, you will throw it down to your feet, and then you will be transported to the safe house." He instructed us.

"Why can't we just shadow travel?" Nico asked, looking uncomfortable.

"Well, I know for a fact that neither you nor Hazel is in the condition to shadow travel _yourself_ there, let alone 6 other people. Also, in order to blend in amongst wizards, you must learn to act like a wizard. Think of this as your first lesson." Chiron told Nico. He huffed and crossed his arms, obviously not too happy about it.

"Who wants to go first?" Chiron asked, looking at our group.

"I will, I mean it is a _fire_place, amIright?" Leo asked with a stupid grin on his face. He looked around the group waiting for people to laugh at his stupid joke, but we were all too exhausted to react. I was surprised that Leo even had enough energy to think of a joke.

Leo shrugged at lifted his trunk with ease and headed toward the fireplace. I felt my eyebrows scrunch together.

"Leo, didn't that thing weigh 200 pounds 10 minutes ago?" I asked.

"Yeah but while we were all having seizures I fixed that problem." Leo told me flashing his famous mischievous grin. I got a bad feeling that he didn't just take something out of his trunk to make it lighter. I opened my mouth to ask, but I shut it quickly, not even bothering since I knew it was hopeless.

Leo walked into the fireplace, which was big enough for him to fit in. He turned to face us, looking up the chimney.

"How is this supposed to work, I could never squeeze up there even if I tried?" Leo asked, his inner mechanic kicking in.

"You'll see. The address is 1540 Peile Street, Greenock Scotland. Repeat it." Chiron told Leo.

He repeated it and Chiron gave him a determined head nod.

"Say it like that and you'll be fine. Take a handful of this powder, repeat it, and then throw it down at your feet. Make sure you are holding your trunk." Chiron told him.

"Yes mother." Leo said taking a handful of the powder, his face growing red.

"Good luck." Chiron told him, which only made Leo blush even harder.

He repeated the address loud and clear then threw the powder at his feet. Suddenly green flames erupted where he had thrown it. They quickly engulfed Leo and then shot up the chimney. When the flames were gone, Leo was nowhere in sight.

"Where'd he go?" Frank asked after what felt like the 500th moment of shocked silence the day.

"1540 Peile Street in Greenock Scotland, now why don't you go next?" Chiron told Frank. Fear flashed across Frank's eyes as he took a step back.

"But the fire-", Frank started.

"Does not burn like normal fire. The stick would not burn even if you didn't have it in that fireless pouch." Chiron comforted Frank. Frank looked to the fireplace again, swallowed hard and agreed to go next.

The same thing happened with Frank, and it stopped being impressive after the third person had left. I was second to last and when it was my turn I took my trunk and walked into the fireplace. I took the powder which felt course under my fingers, gave Percy one last look before repeating the address and throwing the powder at my feet.

Chiron was right when he said it didn't burn. I felt like I had been sucked up with a vacuum cleaner. I was spinning wildly out of control, and I could hear a roaring in my ears. All I could see were the green flames in front of my face. I kept spinning and spinning, I eventually shut my eyes because the flames were making me sick. It went on for longer than I had anticipated, and suddenly I felt something hard collide with my back as I was propelled across the surface, only stopping when I banged into something.

I groaned and tried to sit up, but I failed. I opened my eyes and realized that I wasn't in Chiron's office anymore. The room I found myself in was dark and dimly lit with a few torches and candles. It would have looked like a Scene from Game of Thrones if it weren't for the two couches and the floral wallpaper that lined the room.

I looked up to see Nico, who was covered in soot, reaching a hand out to me. I took it and he quickly pulled me up, pulling me towards the side of the room. I looked around and saw that everyone minus Percy was there, all covered in soot like Nico. And I also noticed that someone else had joined them.

He was an old man, around eighty or ninety from what it looked like. He was dressed in robes that hanged so low that they covered his feet. He was also wearing a hat that looked like an oversized nightcap and half-moon spectacles. Even though he looked kind of strange, I couldn't help but feeling an instant respect for this man.

He met my eyes with a warm smile and nodded assuring at me.

"Hello, my name is Albus Dumbledore, though you can call me Professor Dumbledore. And I presume that you are Annabeth Chase?" He asked me in a British accent.

"Yes, it's nice to meet you." I said, though my voice sounded far away.

"You can get some rest in a moment my dear, but let's wait for Percy shall we?" He said with that warm smile.

As we waited for Percy, I noticed that my trunk did make the way, but it was on the other side of the room, far away from where I had landed. I went to go get it, but Piper held my arm.

"Just wait a second." She told me, then as if on cue, I heard a rumbling coming from the wall, then a second later Percy shot out of the fireplace, sliding across the floor and slamming into the far wall. His trunk had flew out of his hands and joined mine.

Percy groaned and started to sit up. Jason had walked over to him and helped him up. When he got on his feet, he took a look around the room before he laid his eyes on me. They looked dead tired, but he walked his way over to me and gave me a tight hug, which instantly made me feel better.

"Alright, now that we are all here, I would like to formally introduce myself. My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am the headmaster at Hogwarts, so you can all call me Professor Dumbledore. Now I know who you all are and I know your story, and may I say it is an honor to be in the presence of some of the most selfless and brave heroes I have ever encountered in my life." Dumbledore said, smiling down at us. Usually when people said this kind of stuff I just rolled my eyes, but when he said it, it seemed genuine and kind, and I couldn't help but get that warm and fuzzy feeling.

"I also understand why you are here, you are to protect the boy named Harry Potter. He is a marvelous young man, and you all will be getting to know him soon. But as of right now, I have to train you so you can blend in at Hogwarts, and who better to teach you then the headmaster of the school. I understand you have all had a very long and strange day, so I strongly recommend that you all rest up. Your room is through that door, make yourselves at home. If you get hungry, the kitchen is through the door behind me. Also remember that we need to get up bright and early tomorrow, and right now it is around 2 am. So goodnight to all of you and I will see you tomorrow." He finished, before he turned through the door to his right, leaving us all standing in the middle of the room.

"Does he give off the mystical old man vibes to you guys too?" Percy asked still staring at the door, we all nodded in agreement.

"Well guys, this is by far the weirdest day I have had in a long time and I'm going to bed, night." Leo said turning towards our bedroom door. We all joined him, and Percy grabbed both of our trunks as I held the door open for him.

I silently wonder how we were going to all fit in one room, but all of my doubt was soon squashed when I entered the room.

It was nothing compared to the room we were just in, the ceiling was about 15 feet high and the room was the size decently sized ballroom and it was extremely well lit. Eight beds were spread out in two rows across the floor.

"Wow." I heard Hazel breath under her breath. I also heard Leo give a little whistle before he flopped down on his bed.

"Percy carried out trunk to the closest bed that wasn't already taken. He put them down and climbed in it, patting the place next to him on the queen sized bed.

I smiled shyly as I joined him. We got under the covers and cuddled close together before I heard Jason yell, "No sex you two!"

"AWWWWWWW!" Percy groaned loudly. I couldn't help but laugh as I lightly smacked the side of his head. He smirked at my reaction and cuddled me closer, hugging me tight.

"Goodnight my beautiful little witch." He said sleepily as he placed a soft kiss on my cheek. I almost got mad before I remembered that that wasn't an insult anymore.

"Night seaweed brain." I said as I closed my eyes and let the world slip away.

**Wasn't my best but holy crap, 10 freaking pages on Microsoft Word, this was by far the longest.**

**So if you made it to the end, you're welcome for the super long chapter!**

**So it's almost 3am now, which means no sleep for me! (Yay…) If you liked it please review, it makes my day and I always appreciate them :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, if you liked the previous chapters enough to come back, despite some really stupid mistakes in the last chapter (I'm cringing just thinking about them), thanks so much for coming back!**

**Also THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR REVIEWS! Also thank you for the criticism, anything that will help me get better!**

_Jason_

The week we spent at the safe house seemed so rushed that I had trouble keeping up. Dumbledore had shown and taught us so much in such a short amount of time. We learned how to preform different spells and how to make potions. We learned about the wizard world and how it worked, which honestly wasn't too different from the mortal world. We learned about their customs, namely a sport named quidditch that was basically the equivalent of the NFL over in America. Once I learned that it was a game played on flying brooms, it was something that I had immediately wanted to try. The more and more that we learned, the more and more I respected Dumbledore.

The effort that Dumbledore had put into teaching us was remarkable. He worked tirelessly every day, and he was very understanding and patient. When we couldn't get something or didn't understand it, which happened quite a lot, he wouldn't get angry or frustrated. He would simply tell us to try again or explain it again, and he would explain it as many times as we needed.

This is the part that still gets me. Since wizards have an entirely different system of money than what we have over in America, we couldn't transfer any of our money into the kind that the wizards take, so we were all completely broke. Then, without a second thought, Dumbledore bought _everything_ that we had needed to start the school year out of his own money. He bought all the books that we needed, he bought our wands and our school uniforms. He even bought us extra clothes to wear when we weren't wearing our uniforms, knowing that our camp T-shirts weren't going to cut the harsh winters that they got at Hogwarts.

We were all taken back by how he so willingly did all of this for us. We told him multiple times that he didn't have to do all that, but he just shrugged it off. We thanked him more times than I could count too, but each time he said that there was no need to thank him, that it was the right thing to do.

On the last day we were there, we were practicing in the training room, which also doubled as our bedroom. When we weren't sleeping, our beds and trunks magically pushed themselves against the wall so we could have a huge open space to train.

Frank and I were practicing on each other right before we were about to leave. Frank had been trying to get this spell down all week, but to no avail. Most of us had one spell that we could get no matter how hard we tried. For instance mine was mobilicorpus, a spell used to levitate people.

As he faced me, I gripped my wand with a death grip. Frank's eye brows pursed together in concentration as he pointed his wand at me and yelled, "Expelliarmus!"

My wand immediately jumped out of my hand and flew across the room. Every head in the room turned to Frank as he tried to process what he had done.

"Well done Frank. That was flawless!" Dumbledore congratulated him, putting a hand on his shoulder. Hazel ran up to him and hugged as a sheepish grin grew on his face.

"You all have come such a long way in such a short amount of time, and I could not ask for a better group of students." Dumbledore exclaimed. That's the thing with him, he was always be sure to praise us whenever we did something right, and I wasn't complaining.

"Unfortunately we will have to stop our lessons today. There is so much more that I want to teach you, but I have to get back to Hogwarts to prepare for the new year, and you need to get acquainted with Harry and his family." He told us. We all exchanged looks, being here for a week had actually been fun. Even the part where we were learning the history of the magical world, it didn't feel like learning. This was something so completely and totally new to us. It felt like we were diving into a new world, which we kind of were. Even Leo focused on the lessons.

"We will be leaving in an half an hour, grab your bags and do whatever you have to do to get ready. You can eat, but I think Mrs. Weasley has prepared all of you a rather fantastic dinner." Dumbledore informed us, turning out the door before any of us could ask who "Mrs. Weasley" was.

"Great job Frank, couldn't have done it better myself." Percy told Frank as he started to grow red. Percy was, surprisingly, the best at magic of any of us. It all just came so naturally to him. I honestly thought it was going to be Hazel, since she could control The Mist, but she was having just as much trouble as the rest of us.

"So, Dumbledore said we were going to meet Harry's 'family', but didn't his parents die when he was a baby or something?" Piper asked. Gods I was so lucky that she was mine. Her hair was falling out of her messy ponytail, she had bags underneath her eyes from adjusting to the time zone difference, but she still managed to look beautiful.

"Yeah they did, that's half the reason why he's so famous." Percy said, walking over to his suitcase to make sure he had everything. Harry's legacy is the first thing that Dumbledore taught us because apparently, "There isn't a child in the world that does not know his name".

He taught us how his parents were just like everyone else, until the Dark Lord targeted them. He told us how his father died protecting the woman he loved and his son, and he also told us about how his mother sacrificed herself for Harry. And he told us how, because her sacrifice was out of pure love, his mother's love still flows through his veins, protecting him to this day. I still had trouble believing that part, it sounded like something straight out of a really bad movie.

He said the main reason why people knew him was because he was the first person to survive the killing curse in all of history. Apparently Voldemort's wand had failed him, it rebounded the curse killing himself. Which made Harry the savior of the world and a household name at the age of one, which had to be some kind of record.

"Maybe he had cousins or something?" Leo guessed.

"Eh, we'll find out soon enough, let's just get ready." Hazel shrugged.

We were all outside the house with our trunks and everything that Dumbledore bought us. Many of our trunks were filled to the max with new stuff, Leo even had to carry a bag. Most of us held broomsticks too, excluding Percy and Nico. When asked if they wanted one, they had to explain to Dumbledore that if they even tried to get on one, then they would be blasted out of the sky before they were 10 feet off the ground.

"So, how are we getting to London?" Piper asked Dumbledore.

"We're taking the bus of course." Dumbledore said bluntly.

_Taking the bus?_ I thought to myself. I honestly didn't except something so bland after all that we had been through in the past week. The Wizard World had a tendency to make things a bit over dramatic, like every spell and charm was trying to one up the other when it came to being big and flashy. I thought unicorns were going to be giving us a piggyback ride or something.

"Wait, we're taking the bus?" Leo asked, looking as confused as I felt.

"Yes, it should be here any second." Dumbledore told us. After about a minute of standing out on the curb of the street and getting a few stares from random joggers, nothing came.

Then a triple decker bus materialized out of thin air and rode up to us. My eyes widened at the sight of this, but I wasn't as shocked as I would have been a week ago.

I looked around to see if any of the mortals, sorry, _muggles_, had seen the bus appear. I saw one person pushing a stroller down the street, but she paid no attention to it.

A young looking man with greasy hair and pimples covering the majority of his face stepped out wearing what in what looked like a purple conductor's uniform.

"Welcome to the Knight bus, usually an emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard, except for right now, but don't expect us to do this again! Anyway, just stick out your wand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. Ma name is Stan Shunpike and I will be your conductor this evening." Stan said lazily, as if he had done this speech several times before, which he probably had.

"Thank you again Stan for agreeing to pick us up." Dumbledore told Stan.

"Well, I owe you one from a while back, now get on board, all of yous." He said, swinging his arm back towards the bus door. Every one of us exchanged looks as we picked up our trunks.

"No, no I got the bags, get on in." He told us, we didn't say anything as we put our bags down and walked into the bus.

This was not like any bus I had ever been on. Beds were placed where the seats normally were and the windows had curtains drawn so you couldn't see out the windows. One person was sleeping on the bed nearest to the back.

"Is that a chandelier?" Nico asked, starring up at the roof. I looked up and, sure enough, there was a huge glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

"Yep." Percy said, staring at it.

"I'm not even going to ask." Annabeth sighed, sitting on one of the beds.

"Alright where we goin?" Stan asked, stepping onto the bus.

"The Leaky Caldron in London." Dumbledore said.

"You hear that Ernie?" Stan yelled to the front of the bus. The driver answered with a grunt, and Stan looked back to us.

"Alright, before we head off, yous can buy a hot chocolate for 13 Sickles and for 15 Sickles yous can get a hot water bottle and a toothbrush in any color yous wants." Stan told us, before looking back towards Ernie.

"Let's go!" Stan yelled to him. Ernie answered with a deep chuckle as I saw him pull a lever on the dash board.

We were all forcefully slammed back from the force of the bus taking off, landing on the beds behind us. The bus was jerking back and forth, jerking us along with it. The beds that we were sitting on were on wheels, so they moved with the bus, slamming into the walls as the bus made sudden turns and stops. Amazingly, the man on the bed managed to stay asleep throughout the ride.

"Don't the muggles see us?" Annabeth asked pulling back a curtain and peering out the window.

"Muggles? They don't see nothin." Stan answered back, surprisingly calm. Out of curiosity, I pulled back the curtain and saw lights and figures flashing by faster than I have ever seen. We were zipping through traffic, in and out of lanes as we dodged cars.

I quickly looked away, the image making me sick. My gaze fell on Piper, who looked like she didn't know what to think of the bus ride.

"Having fun?" I asked her playfully as I took her hand in mine. She looked at me and started to laugh, not the kind of laugh she did when she found something enjoyable, but the kind she did when she didn't know what else to do.

I laughed with her, pulling her into a kiss, which didn't work out very well since we slammed our noses together as the bed banged into the wall behind me.

She laughed for real this time and asked me if I was okay, and I just laughed with her.

"This is awesome!" Leo yelled, looking like a five year old in a candy shop, practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Hey you, if you're gonna be sick, there's a can back there!" Stan said, pointing to Hazel. Hazel looked green in the face as she nodded a thank you to Stan before running back to the can, Frank following her.

The rest of the ride was basically just all of us laughing together. The bus kept going for about five minutes before it came to a sudden stop, sending us flying forward.

"Leaky Cauldron, everybody off!" Stan yelled when the bus was still.

"Wait you said this place was in London right?" Leo asked, looking out his window to make sure that we had actually arrived.

"Yeah what about it?" Stan asked Leo, wondering why he looked so confused.

"London's on the other side of the United Kingdom, that trip should have taken at least 7 hours." He told Stan, who just laughed at him.

"Yeah, seven hours by car, but does this look like a car to you." Stan asked Leo, who just stared at him. His mind was probably racing, try to figure out all the mechanics of how it was possible to travel that fast.

"Don't strain yourself man, magic and logic don't really go together." Percy told Leo, pulling him up. Leo nodded vaguely, still lost in thought.

I got off the bus, holding my broomstick in one hand and Piper's hand in the other. Once we were all off the bus, we stepped onto the side walk, people pushed past us, not paying attention to the eight kids, six of which were holding broomsticks, and an old man wearing robes. The way that they completely ignored us reminded me a lot of New York City.

Stan handed us all our trunks and got back on the bus, saluting us goodbye. When he was inside, the bus swerved past a few cars before if dissipated out of sight.

"Well that was one of the best roller coaster rides I have ever been on." Percy said after the bus was gone. We all laughed in agreement as we turned to Dumbledore.

"So this is where Harry's staying?" Frank asked. Dumbledore shook his head.

"No, Harry is staying somewhere else near here, so we will have to walk the rest of the way." Dumbledore told us.

"Wait couldn't we have just been dropped off at the place, I mean that would have literally taken a second." Leo asked, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion.

"Yes it could have, but you see this location has to be kept a secret, we can't have the people like Stan Knowing where it is. He would sell the location out without a second thought if the buyer offered up enough money." Dumbledore told us.

"Well you can't just assume that, he seems nice." Piper argued, I could tell that there was a small hint of charmspeak in her words, because I suddenly didn't want to assume anything.

"I never said that he wasn't nice my dear, in fact, Stan is a very nice man. But he used the emergency only bus today to transporter us here even though we weren't lost, because I paid him to do so. What makes you think he won't do the same thing again?" Dumbledore told her. Piper opened her mouth to argue, but stopped herself. I squeezed her hand to tell her that I agreed with her.

"Alright, let's get going." Dumbledore told us, walking off without giving us time to answer him. We picked up our trunks and ran after him. We walked along the sidewalk, enjoying all the views London had to offer, when Piper's hand tensed in mine.

"Jason!" She exclaimed, her hand over her mouth. I followed her gaze and saw what she was staring at, Big Ben, something that she was wanted to see in person since she was a little girl.

"That's really it!" Piper squealed, leaning into me. I took her in my arms as we kept walking, and all I could do was smile down at her. I don't think I ever saw her that happy, the look of pure joy in her eyes made my heart melt. After seeing her be broken beyond belief and seeing her sad eyes and fake smile through Iris Messaging for two years, this is one of the greatest sights I had ever seen.

"Gods I love you." I said. I didn't really intend on saying those words, they just kind of came out of my mouth.

"I love you too." She said, smiling up at me.

"And I love you both!" Percy yelled as be dropped his arms down on mine and Piper's shoulders in-between us, smiling like an idiot.

"You're a dick." I told him, shoving him off my shoulder.

"I know." Percy said, smirking as he barreled through me and Piper, forcing us apart. He stalked over to Annabeth laughing, taking her hand in his. She looked back at us and mouthed sorry before Percy pulled her into a kiss. I rolled my eyes as the rest of the group laughed, even Dumbledore gave a little chuckle.

We walked for about twenty minutes before we came to a row of apartment complexes, or flats as they were called there. Dumbledore stopped in-between numbers 11 and 13 and turned to face us.

"Here we are, Number 12 Grimmauld Place." Dumbledore said, looking down at all of us. We looked to the numbers on the building again before looking back at Dumbledore.

"There is no number 12 here…it's going to appear out of nowhere isn't it." Leo sighed, looking like he just wanted to go to bed, which was saying something considering that he was constantly hyper.

"Now you're getting the hang of it." Dumbledore said smiling as he tapped his wand to one of the bricks on the wall. Just then the building started to shift and a whole other wall grew out of the building. Of course the muggle didn't notice the building growing in size, they just kept on doing whatever they were doing. We all watched as the building slid out, all of our shock was gone, stuff like this stopped being impressive a few days before.

Once the building was done moving, Leo was the first to speak.

"How…you know what, I give up." He sighed again, picking up his bags. We all followed Dumbledore up to the door as he knocked on it. We waited a few seconds before a door opened to reveal a man in his mid-30s dressed in worn down clothes and an angry expression on his face, pointing his wand at Dumbledore's nose.

Once he realized who it was, he dropped his wand and his expression softened. His eyes caught sight of us, and he quickly examined all of us.

"Ah Remus, a pleasure to see you again." Dumbledore said. He gave Remus a warm smile as he tried to return it back, but it did not have the same effect.

"It is a pleasure to see you too, Albus. Are these the foreign exchange students?" Remus asked motioning towards us.

"Yes, you do have enough room for them to stay for a while correct?" Dumbledore asked him.

"Of course, the children are eager to meet them. Do you care to join us for a cup of butterbeer?" Remus asked him.

"No, I have other matters to attend to." He said with that warm smile. He turned to face us looked at each one of us.

We all knew the run through. Dumbledore would not be joining us at safe house number two, he had other things to do. He told us that he was putting us in the care of a group called the Order of the Phoenix, who were currently protecting Harry. The adults in the group knew that the only reason why we were here was to protect Harry during his school year, but they did not know of our backgrounds, which meant that they thought that we were just wizards from the states. Dumbledore said they would eventually find out about us, but when the time is right.

He told us that the kids staying there, all six of them, should never have to find out about us. The only reason why they should ever find out is if their knowledge is imperative to the quest or if we are forced to reveal ourselves.

"Are you all ready?" Dumbledore asked us. I almost didn't want him to leave, he kind of gave me that old grandpa vibe, and he seemed to truly care about us. Then again, a prisoner on death row is a better grandfather than Kronos.

We all nodded and he gave us his warm smile.

"Well, I will see you all September 1st, until then." Dumbledore told us, he pulled out his wand and gave us a wink as he waved it in the air. A millisecond later, he had disappeared into thin air.

We all widened our eyes at Dumbledore's exit, but tried to hide our shock. We were supposed to be wizards, these things weren't supposed to surprise us.

"Hello all of you, my name is Remus Lupin, please come in." He told us with a smile, gesturing to the dark hallway behind him.

We all looked at each other, then started to make our way to the base of the Order of the Phoenix.

**It was a bit boring, but I wanted to post something.**

**Next chapter will be better I promise, and the story will really kick off when they get to Hogwarts. I tried to add a bit of fluff in there for all you romantics out there, not entirely sure if it worked out or not, you can tell me. **

**Well if you liked it and want more, tell me! I will be working on this as much as I can, because I really enjoy writing it! Bye :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you all for reading this, I love waking up to a ton of emails telling me that you guys enjoyed it, it makes my day :)**

**Disclaimer: I am a 16 year old girl. I do not own anything, including the song "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé, or "Let it Go" from Frozen for that matter.**

**On with the story!**

_Hermione_

I was sitting in the girl's room reading my Potions textbook for the next year when they arrived. Mrs. Weasley had informed us that we would be taking in some American Exchange students, all of which would be in mine, Harry and Ron's year. They were staying here because until the school year started, because they had nowhere else to stay. We had three extra beds set up in the girls room and five in the boys room for their arrival, one of which I had used to store all of my books. I knew that I would have to move them once they got here, but that was the least of my worries.

We haven't been allowed to contact Harry all summer. I only went home for about a week before I came here. We had asked several times if we could write to him, but each time it was too dangerous to risk it. I wondered what Harry was thinking, not being able to talk to anyone or know anything that was going on. I doubt he knew that the entire world thought he was lying about You-Know-Who.

As I sat on my bed I heard the unmistakable pounding of Ron's footsteps coming up the stairs. Sighing, I closed my book, knowing that when Ron ran like that I wasn't going to get much more reading in.

Just as I set the book down the door burst open to reveal a panting Ron who looked overly excited.

"The exchange kids are here, come on!" Ron told me with a huge grin plastered on his face. Suddenly much more interested than I was a second ago, I jumped out of my bed and followed him down the man flights of stairs. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, almost everybody was standing in the living room, including the eight new kids.

I was almost surprised by their appearance. They looked like your average kids, but they seemed off in a way. I don't know what set it off, but they looked older than 15. It might have been the sad look in all of their eyes, like they had just come home from war. It was the same look Harry had last year when he had arrived at the house a few days ago.

"Hermione! Come down here dear, we all introduced ourselves already. I want you to meet our new guests." Mrs. Weasley told me, beckoning me with her hand. I walked down the stairs as all of the new kids eyed me and I suddenly grew a strong interest in the floor boards.

"This is Hermione Granger." Mrs. Weasley told the eight kids that stood in front of me.

"Hi." I told them. I tried to look pleased, but I was cautious around them. I felt like these were the kind of kids that I didn't want on my bad side.

"It's nice to meet you Hermione." The boy with blond hair and a small scar on his lip said with an American accent. For an American, he was very good looking. He was tall and I could tell that underneath his t shirt he was very well built.

"Why don't all of you introduce- wait where are Fred and George?" Mrs. Weasley asked, looking around the room. A second later, the twins apparated inside the room, laughing hysterically.

"You rang." One of the twins said to their mother. I could never tell those two apart, no matter how hard I tried.

"Just because you can use magic now does not mean you can use it for every little thing!" Mrs. Weasley yelled, her face turning red. The boys just laughed in response.

"Relax mother you'll blow your top off, which I'm sure dad would enjoy very much." One of them said to her, and he had to quickly duck from Mrs. Weasley's hand. I noticed one of them caught sight of the eight new kids standing in the center of the room.

"Are these the Americans?" The twin asked, pointing at them.

"Yep, we're from the land of burgers, pizza and freedom." The Hispanic boy said with a grin on his face. He was wearing white t-shirt with an army jacket and work boots. I got a feeling like he would be getting along with Fred and George just fine.

The twins laughed at his response, and exchanged a glance between each other.

"Alright, introduce yourselves you two." Their mother told them.

"Well I'm George and this is Fred." George said, pointing to his brother.

"Or I could be George and he could be Fred." Fred said, pointing to his brother.

"You'll never know." They said in unison, crossing their arms with a smirk on their face.

"Enough you two, why don't you introduce all tell us your names." Mrs. Weasley said, turning toward the new kids.

The boy with shaggy black hair and green eyes that reminded me a lot of Harry went first.

"Well, I'll go first. Hi, I'm Percy Jackson." Percy said. I immediately looked toward the Weasleys, all of which had tensed up. Percy was a name that no one even dared to bring up in the house. Mrs. Weasley looked like she was trying to hold back tears.

"Did I do something wrong?" Percy asked, noticing the sudden change in all of our attitudes.

"No, no of course not dear, you just have the same name as…why don't you go next dear." Mrs. Weasley said, changing the subject. Percy didn't say another word as Mrs. Weasley pointed to the blonde girl who looked like she could kill you with her bare hands.

"Hi, my name is Annabeth Chase, thank you all for taking us in." Annabeth said, her hand finding Percy's. Percy leaned down and placed a kiss on her forehead. He looked up and eyed the room, as if daring us to say anything.

"Well alright, and may I say that you two are adorable." Mrs. Weasley said with a loving grin. Annabeth and Percy turned red at her comment, and looked in every direction but Mrs. Weasleys eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, the girl in the back spoke up. I have to admit, she was stunning. Even with her choppy haircut and baggy clothes.

"Hi, I'm Piper McLean." Piper said, waving at us. I thought I recognized her last name from some movie actor, but I wasn't sure.

"Hey." Ron said dreamily, eyeing her up and down like he was under some spell. I looked back and realized that every teenage boy was eyeing her the same way. I hit Ron on the arm, which got a small reaction out of him before he directed his attention back to Piper.

I was going to say something but the blonde boy who spoke to me earlier beat me to it. He stepped in front of Piper and quickly spoke.

"I'm Jason Grace, Piper's boyfriend." Jason said. And to prove his point, he leaned into her and start to snog her in front of everyone. Ginny and I couldn't help but laugh at the defeated look on the three boy's faces. When he pulled away he glared angrily at each one of them.

The room filled with awkward tension before the Asian boy in the back spoke up.

"I'm Frank Zhang, and I just want to point out that I'm not actually American." Frank said.

"You sound like you are." Ron said.

"Honestly Ronald, have you ever heard of Canada." I told him. Frank looked at me and smiled.

"Oh, sorry Frank." Ron said, growing pink in the ears.

"Not a problem." He replied.

"Well I'm Leo Valdez. Bad boy supreme. And I am also not dating any of them." He said, then proceeded to sing "Single Ladies" by Beyoncé. I tried to contain myself at first, but I only lasted a few seconds. I laughed into my hand as I watched him attempt to perform the dance from the music video. All of his friends started laughed along with me, but everybody else just stared at him like he had two heads.

"What?" Fred asked, staring at him. Leo stopped and stared back at Fred.

"Oh come on, tell me you've heard of Beyoncé." Leo asked us, looking around. I was the only one who nodded yes.

"Seriously, only Hermione?" Leo asked again.

"Man, just let it go." Jason told him. Leo eyes widened to the size of saucers as his smile grew even bigger. Every single one of the eight's heads snapped to Jason as his eyes widened in horror as he realized what he had just said.

"LET IT GO! LET IT GO! CAN'T HOLD IT BACK ANYMOOOOOORE!" Leo sang at the top of his lungs, stretching his arms out and dancing around the room. All of the new kids groaned, except for Percy, who just laughed. I heard one of them mutter, "Here we go again."

"HERE I STAND IN THE LIGHT OF DAAAAAYYYY!" Percy sang with Leo, joining in. They threw their arms around each other as their friends started to beg them to stop.

"LET THE STORM RAGE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!" They screamed together, throwing their heads up to the ceiling. Even though most of us didn't know what was going on, we were all laughing at Leo and Percy's sudden outburst into song and his friend's efforts to get them to stop.

"The cold never bothered me anyway." They said together, taking a bow. Some of us clapped when they were done, but Fred and George clapped the loudest.

"Don't encourage them." Jason sighed. Percy and Leo laughed together at his response.

"Were you two by any chance raised by muggles?" George asked, still laughing.

"We all were." Percy told him.

"Well that was definitely something, I must say, but let's let the others introduce themselves before we start singing again shall we?" Mrs. Weasley asked, the two boys apologized and headed back to their spots in the circle. Percy received a playful slap on the arm from Annabeth. He faked pain as he looked to Annabeth with a hurt expression, before she pushed him away, laughing to herself.

"Well I'm Hazel Levesque and I really can't top that." She said, blushing a bit. I noticed her accent was more southern than the rest, showing that she grew up away from all of them.

"I'm Nico." The last boy said. He was dressed in all black, with a leather jacket and a skull t-shirt underneath. He hadn't said anything until now, and he gave me a horrible feeling. Not the feeling that I should be scared of him, even though I still was, it felt like he had been through a lot in his life, I could tell just by reading his expression.

"It's very nice to meet you dear. Well, welcome all of you. I know the place is a bit grim, but I assure you that Hogwarts is simply magnificent. We were all just about to have dinner, would you care to join us?" Mrs. Weasley asked. They looked around at us, looking like they were trying to take it all in. I didn't know what there was to take in, 6 red heads, two scruffy men in their 30s and a girl with bushy hair. Though they acted like it was the best sight in the world.

"Yeah we'd love that." Piper said, smiling.

_Percy_

Diner with the Order was fantastic. Not only was Mrs. Weasley a great cook, like Dumbledore had promised, she was also one of the nicest women I have ever met. She gave us much food as we asked for, and it was all amazing. We sat and talked with them for at least an hour, Fred and George sharing embarrassing stories about Ron and Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley sharing embarrassing stories about them in return.

They asked about our pasts, where we grew up and what school that we went to before. We told them that we went to the school Dumbledore had told us to tell him, and the rest was mostly lies. I felt bad about lying to them, because had taken us in, gave us a place to sleep and feed us, but we didn't have a choice.

At the end of the dinner we offered to help clean up, but Mrs. Weasley said that we didn't have to. Then our dishes proceeded to rise off of the tables and float into the kitchen.

_Floating dishes, okay, that's fine. Completely and totally normal._ I thought to myself. I learned a while ago that if you don't question the things that happened in in the wizard world, then it wouldn't be as surprising.

"Hey have you guys ever played Quidditch?" Ron asked us.

"No we haven't, but a lot of us want to learn, we have our own brooms." Jason said.

"That's great we can teach you!" Ron exclaimed, looking very excited.

"No we can't, what do you think the muggles would say if they saw a bunch of kids flying on a broomstick?" Fred asked Ron. I saw the excitement die down in his eyes, I could tell that he really enjoyed that sport.

"Hey why don't we show them around upstairs?" Ginny asked. They all nodded in agreement, so we started to stand up to follow them.

"Wait, can you all stay down here for a second, we want to have a word with you." Sirius Black said. I was a little weary of that man after he introduced himself earlier. He seemed more _Sirius_ than the others. (Sorry, I had to.)

"Okay, what's wrong?" Hermione asked. Sirius just shook his head.

"Not you, our guests." Sirius told her. She blushed a bit, but her eyebrows pursed together in suspicion. I was going to have to be careful of that girl, she seemed onto us the moment she walked down those stairs, and she knew that something was up.

She didn't say anything as she walked out of the room, followed by the others. Once they were gone, we were left in the alone in the room with the members of the Order.

"How are you all adjusting to Britain?" Sirius asked, trying to make us feel more comfortable. The attempt failed miserably, because the whole awkward tension feeling from before fell over the room again.

"Uh, we're doing fine." I told him, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, looking around the room.

"Listen, Dumbledore told us why you were all here, to protect Harry while he's in school since we can't do it ourselves." Sirius told us, sitting down in the chair folding his hands together while looking at all of us.

"That's right." Jason spoke for us, putting his arms around Piper's waist.

"Now tell me, and please answer me truthfully, have any of you protected anything in your life?" Sirius asked.

_Oh you know, only the world. Twice._ I thought to myself.

"Yes we have." I answered him. He eyed us suspiciously.

"Well what makes you all so special, why did he have to take eight kids from America instead of just taking some that already went to school with Harry?" He asked us. We all exchanged glances, knowing that we couldn't tell the truth.

"We can't tell you." Leo told him. I would have gone with saying that we were Ninjas or something, but that worked to.

"Why not? He is my god son, some of the only family I have left. I should have the right to know." Sirius begged, looking desperate this time. I suddenly felt bad for him, he was just looking out for him.

"Dumbledore said that you would find out eventually, but now just wasn't the right time." Annabeth told Sirius, trying to make things better.

"None of you are going to tell us are you?" Mr. Weasley asked after a few seconds of silence. We all just stared at him with blank expressions, which was a good enough answer for him.

"All right, no point in fighting. What we really wanted to say was that something has risen that will be a problem." Sirius told us with sad eyes. We all stood straight up, giving him our full and undivided attention.

"What problem?" Hazel asked instantly.

"Harry is currently living with his aunt and uncle across town, and today he was attacked by two dementors. He was forced to use magic to ward them off, but that is against the law. He was expelled from Hogwarts, but the ruling was temporarily over turned. There will be a trial, but if he is found guilty, he will be expelled without a second thought. More members of the order will be picking him up tomorrow night, and they will be staying here with us." Sirius told us. A pit dropped in my stomach. I wasn't to upset about not going to Hogwarts, but I was worried how we were going to make it look like nothing when we dropped out of Hogwarts just as Harry had.

"I guess we will have to wait and see if he is found innocent." Frank sighed. I sighed along with him, and so did the rest of the group, because we were all thinking the same thing. _Was changing into to 15 year olds really for nothing?_

"Go join the other kids dears, they are all waiting for you upstairs." Mrs. Weasley told us, basically pushing us out the door.

We shuffled up the stairs to find the four kids at the top. They all looked startled as the saw us, and Fred was shoving something inside his pocket.

"You guys okay?" Piper asked, and they all nodded in unison.

"Yeah we're fine, hey why don't we get to bed it's getting late." Ron said, hurrying off to his room. We all looked at each other, knowing they did something that they didn't want us to know about. We all agreed through glances that we wouldn't ask about it.

"Alright let's go." Frank said, giving Hazel a kiss before following Ron down the hallway. Jason and I did the same thing before walking with Fred and George to our bedroom.

It was smaller than the room that we had in Scotland, but I didn't care. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor was 5 times better than sleeping in the depths of Tartarus.

We started to get changed into our pajamas, when I heard George speak behind me.

"Bloody Hell mate, what happened to your back?" He asked, staring at me with wide eyes. Fred and Ron looked and immediately started to stare just like George.

I gave them a pass, being a half blood doesn't make your skin desirable to look at. Throughout the years, especially in that short time in Tartarus, I had gotten many scars. My back happened to look like someone came at it with an axe, which happened a few times.

"I fell in a wood chipper." I told them without thinking, not bothering to look back at them. I quickly pulled one of my camp T-shirts on. It no longer read Camp Half-Blood though, Dumbledore had taken the time to charm all of our shirts so they would read something completely different. This one happened to have a name of a random charity on the front and said the word "VOLUNTEER" on the back.

"What's a wood chipper?" Ron asked. I just sighed, it was amazing how much these kids didn't know.

"It's a…never mind." I tried to explain, before giving up. We all sat down on our beds, though we didn't lay down.

"So what house do you think you're going to be sorted into?" Ron asked, trying to start up a conversation.

"What are we going to be sorted into?" Leo asked in confusion. Ron laughed and looked at us to see if he was joking, but our confused glares gave him his answer.

"Come on, tell me that you have heard of the four houses." Ron asked, looking around us. We all shook our heads no.

"There isn't a lot of talk of Hogwarts back home." Jason said.

"Are you serious? Well when you get to Hogwarts, the sorting hat will sort you into one of the four houses, where you will live, sleep, and spend most of your time. Your sorted based on your personalities. The smart ones go into Ravenclaw, the brave go into Gryffindor, which is the house that we are all in. The loyal and kind hearted go into Hufflepuff and the cunning go into Slytherin." Ron told us.

I felt like a brick had hit me over the head.

"_Smart, Loyal, Brave and Cunning_." That's what the prophecy had said. I suddenly realized what that line of the prophecy had meant. It was probably how Chiron knew that we were supposed to come here.

"Hello, Earth to Americans!" Fred yelled, waving his arm to get our attention.

I snapped out of my state of shock and said "What?!" Like the smooth criminal I am.

"Are you guys okay, you all just blanked out for a few seconds." Fred told us, which told me that we all got the message.

"Dude we're all exhausted." Leo said, making up a lie to cover up for our sudden epiphany.

"But, it's only eight at night." Ron told us.

"Yeah but it's like 4 am where I'm from." Jason said, rubbing his eyes and laying down. I knew for a fact that he was full of horse crap, but I played along.

"Yeah, I'm going to bed." I said, adding a fake yawn for special effect. The four of us said our goodnights, and the brothers decided to go to bed as well. Right before they turned off the light, I caught a glimpse of what Fred had shoved in his pocket before, it must have fallen out when he threw his pants casually aside.

I must have seen it wrong, because it looked like a pair of severed human ears.

**AND AFTER FOUR CHAPTERS, THE PLOT ACTUALLY MOVES FORWARD A BIT!**

**Wow two chapter in 24 hours. Jus don't expect this to happen all the time, I just really wanted to post this today to say happy birthday to two people who have changed my life dramatically.**

**So, even though I'm an hour late, HAPPY 34****TH**** BRITHDAY TO THE ONE AND ONLY HARRY POTTER AND MAMA ROWLING! **

**(PS if you could check out the HP fic called Lillian and Rose and the Forbidden Expedition by HPletterPJform, It's really good.)**


	5. Chapter 5

_Percy_

I'd like to say that I was woken up by the chirping of birds and little woodland creatures serving me breakfast. But no, that would be crazy, Percy Jackson having a nice day for once? I can just imagine the Fates on Mount Olympus laughing at the thought of that.

I was asleep in my bed when I heard a scream. My eyes shot open, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling above me. It took a second to remember that I was in Number 12 Grimmauld place, where we had arrived yesterday.

I sprang up into a sitting position immediately, looking around to where the scream came from. My hand was on Riptide in my pajama pants pocket, waiting to pull it out at any sight of a threat. What I saw was the Weasley brothers slowly pushing themselves out of their beds and the rest of the demigods-in-disguise looking like they were going to kill anything that came toward them, a little habit that we had developed over the years of having to sleep with one eye open.

_Annabeth_. I thought. I threw my covers off and ran to the girl's room with Riptide in my hand. I wasn't going to uncap it until I was sure that there was a threat, since a pen turning into a sword probably wouldn't be easy to explain, even by Wizarding standards.

I burst into the room, ready to attack the first thing I saw. Instead of finding a monster that threatened the safety of the others, everybody in the house except for the boys were all huddled around Annabeth's bed, who had her eyes shut tight, tears streaming down her face.

I ran to her side as fast as I could, knocking Hazel out of the way. Hermione was the first to speak, "We tried the Riving spell, but she wouldn't wake up!" She half shouted, trying to sound calm but failing miserably. Annabeth was shaking slightly, muttering nonsense while she slept, her limps twitching every few seconds.

I looked at Piper and gave her a glance, silently asking if her charmspeak had worked. She understood and shook her head no, looking panicked.

I cursed to myself, Piper's charmspeak never failed, even then, the spell wouldn't wake her up. I looked down at her quivering form, which reminded me a lot of the time we spent down together in Tartarus.

_No, you will not start screaming too._ I told myself, pushing the images to the back of my head.

"Annabeth." I told her, shaking her slightly. She didn't react to my voice like she normally did, which made my stomach drop even further than it had.

"Annabeth, wake up!" I yelled, my voice cracking. It scared me half to death seeing her like this, and after all I've seen, almost nothing scared me anymore. I was Percy Jackson, a hero of Olympus, Son of the Sea, slayer of monsters, savior of the world, and I was terrified to see my girlfriend having a nightmare.

Her eyes popped open and she gasped for breath, her gray eyes red from crying. She shot out of her bed and wrapped her arms around me as soon as she saw me. She held me like she was holding on for dear life, and I hugged her back the same way as she started crying into my shoulder.

"They killed you…" She breathed, which made my heart sink. Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed the back of her messy blonde hair and placed a kiss on her forehead, and brought her head up so I could see her beautiful eyes.

"Nobody tried to kill me, I'm not dead. You were just having a nightmare, I promise, I'm right here and I'm not leaving." I told her, grabbing her face with my hands to make sure that she was listening to every word that I said. She pressed her lips against mine, wrapping her arms around my neck. I kissed her back, her face wetting mine with her tears.

She pulled back and looked like she was starting to calm down. She looked at me again, and must have noticed my expression.

"Are you okay?" She asked me, looking concerned. That was my Annabeth, having a traumatic experience and then worrying about someone else more than herself.

"You scared us." I told her. Her eyes widened when she heard the word "us" and suddenly became aware that every person in the house was staring at her, horror stricken.

"Are you alright dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked, her wand pulled out, still wearing her nightgown.

"Yes, I'm fine." Annabeth told her with a shaky voice. She looked around the room before looking at her feet, scratching her head like she did when she was nervous.

"You're not fine, you were screaming bloody murder!" Ron yelled. We all glared at him as soon as the words left his mouth, Hermione smacking him on the arm with a newspaper.

"It's alright, that happens sometimes." Annabeth told him, turning red in the face. She hated showing any kind of weakness, even to me. Screaming in her sleep a day after she meet these people was definitely not helping her.

"It was different this time." Piper said, staring at her.

"What do you mean?" She asked, looking at her with wide eyes, knowing what she was going to say.

"This is the worst I've ever seen you. You were screaming and crying and shaking and you wouldn't wake up. I tried waking you up first, but that didn't work. So Hermione tried a Riving spell but that didn't work either. We all tried everything to wake, but you didn't until Percy screamed your name." Piper told her. Annabeth looked to me for confirmation, her eyes begging for it not to be true. I slowly nodded, before pulling her into a hug.

"Everything's going to be okay." I whispered in her ear, even though I knew it was a lie. Annabeth had gotten nightmares every night, sure she didn't scream all the time, but they never went away. That's why I felt guilty, because I had never gotten one. Not once had the images of our own personal hell revisited my dreams. All I could do was sit and watch helplessly as they destroyed Annabeth, and there was nothing I could do to help her. I think that was the Fates way of torturing me, making me see the love of my life scream in fear and pain, knowing that it was not something I could slash away with a sword.

She pulled away from me and wiped her tears away, trying to put on a strong face. "I'm really sorry about waking you all, this usually doesn't happen."

"Why are you apologizing, it's not something that you could have helped! Its morning anyway, we needed to get up, big day ahead of us. Why don't we all go down stairs and get some breakfast, shall we?" Mr. Weasley said, trying to brighten the mood. We all nodded and started to stand up, I tried to help Annabeth up, but she insisted on doing it herself, which meant she was getting back to the normal Annabeth.

"Arthur, could you take the children down, we would like to talk to Percy for a moment." Sirius asked. Not really having much of a choice, he nodded and hurried the kids out the door. I asked Annabeth if she would be okay without me, and she nodded. I kissed her before she slowly made her way out the door.

I turned back to face Mrs. Weasley, Sirius and Lupin who all were staring at me. I shifted my weight from foot to the other and examined to room.

"How often does that happen?" Lupin asked, getting straight to the point.

"She gets them every night, she stopped screaming in her sleep a while ago but as you can see it's starting again." I told him, seeing no reason to lie.

"I know regular night terrors from ones caused my trauma when I see one. What happened to her that would cause that to happen?" Sirius asked.

_Shit, he's smart._ I thought to myself.

"Listen I can't tell you everything, but all I can say is that we have all been through some nasty stuff, Annabeth more than the others." I told them.

"What was it that happened to her?" Lupin asked me, walking towards me. Upon instinct I stepped back, shaking my head.

"Even if I could tell you I wouldn't, this isn't something that you'd want to know." I told them. They all ignored my subtle warning to not ask any more questions, apparently more curious than I thought.

"We want to know, we can help her." Lupin comforted. I just kept shaking my head.

"Listen, I know that you want to help us, and I thank you for that. But believe me when I say this, you can't. I'm the only thing that can calm her down, that's the most help she can get." I said with a stern voice, my eyes begging with them to drop the subject. The images that I worked so hard to push back so far into my head were coming clearer with every question.

They stared at me for a few seconds, trying to read my expression. Sirius was the one to break the uncomfortable silence.

"Are you sure that it was just Annabeth that went through this traumatizing experience?" He asked with a smooth voice, eyebrows knitting together in suspicion. I felt my breath get heavier and my pulse quicken as the memories of Annabeth and I at the Doors of Death started creeping back into my head. Seeing Annabeth's corpse, feeling so weak and vulnerable. The friends that we found down there against all odds, the ones who died so I and she could live, even though they so desperately wanted to see the stars once more. I could barely take it.

Just because I didn't have nightmares didn't mean I couldn't get flashbacks that sent me into a nonfunctioning state. Not even Annabeth knew that I got them, and I worked so hard to keep them a secret. Having my own cabin back at Camp Half Blood to myself helped a lot with that matter. Whenever I felt one coming on, I would make up some crappy excuse to go back there, and I would just let it play out. Here there was nowhere to run to, and I was about to have one in front of three people that I barely knew.

"Can we please not talk about this anymore?" I begged, my voice shaking. This time, they got the message. When they realized what they did, their expressions went from curious to realization to guilt, all in a matter of seconds.

"I'm sorry." Sirius apologized, saying nothing more. At least this man knew when to stop when he crossed the line.

"Why don't you two go join the others down stairs, I need to apologize to this poor boy." Mrs. Weasley demanded. They looked at each other and gave me an apologetic expression as they walked out the door.

"I'm sorry for those two, they don't know when to stop pecking." She told me with apologetic eyes.

"It's alright, I understand the concern. It's just…we've been through a lot of stuff, seen things most people should never see. Those things don't exactly leave you." I told her, knowing that that was pushing the whole secret thing a little too far, but I figured it was safe.

"I don't think you ever told me about your parent's Percy." She asked me out of the blue. I looked at her with slight confusion and she gave me a look that said that I didn't have to tell her if I didn't want to.

"I grew up with my mom, she was a muggle. We lived in a small apartment in New York City and she is the best woman that I know. She was sacrificed everything so that I could get as best of a life as she could give." I told her. I felt like it should have been awkward telling her all this, but it was oddly comforting.

"She sounds like a fantastic woman." She told me. I slightly nodded in agreement.

"What about your father?" She asked me.

_Crap, think of something._ I thought to myself, scavenging my brain for any possible lie I could think of.

"I never knew my dad. He was a fisherman, and he treated my mom like a queen when he was alive. He died before I was one." I said simply. I mentally patted myself on the back; that actually sounded believable.

"I'm so sorry to hear that." She told me.

"How old did you say you were?" She asked. Every single bit of relaxed feeling I had was gone. My pulse quickened as I thought every curse word I knew in my head.

"Fifteen." I blurted out, a little too quickly.

"I'm sorry it's just, you and your friends, you don't seem like your Ron's age. You all act more mature than most kids your age are. How long have you and Annabeth been dating?" She asked me.

"About a year." I told her, thinking that if I told her we were actually dating for around three, that would seem a bit odd.

"The way you look at her, is just unbelievable. You look like you truly and genuinely love her, and she looks at you the same way. And the way that you comforted her just now, and how she almost immediately calmed down after she saw you. I have only seen that love a few times in my life, and I have never seen it in someone as young as you." She breather, looking lost in her thoughts. I sat there awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

_Is it really that obvious?_ I asked myself in my head.

"You really do love her, don't you?" She asked me, with a warm smile growing on her lips.

"Yes mam."' I told her, avoiding her eyes sheepishly.

"Take good care of her, okay?" She asked me, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"I intend to." I answered, returning her smile as best as I could.

"Speaking of which, could you do me a favor?" She asked. Her expression becoming more serious now, more worried than before. My back straightened up at the sight of it as I grew concerned.

"Anything." I told her without a second thought.

"Please, protect my boys, Hermione and Ginny as well. They have a tendency of getting mixed up in all of Harry's problems. A few years ago, Ginny was almost killed. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to them." She said with a soft voice. At first I didn't know what to say, I just stared at her in awe. She was one of the most caring people I have ever met, Hermione wasn't even her daughter but she asked me to protect her like she was.

"Of course." I said. I sort of thought that we would have to protect them anyway, seeing that they were Harry's best friends.

"Thank you dear." She told me as she placed a kiss on my forehead. Never in my life had I felt so uncomfortable in such a normal situation as this one, but I tried to hide it as best I could.

"Mrs. Weasley, why did you freeze up yesterday when I told you my name?" I asked suddenly, regretting the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. She looked taken back by my sudden interest in the topic, but she answered it none the less.

"You see, I have more children than the ones who live here, seven in all. My son, Percy, had disowned our family a few years ago." She told me simply, trying to hide her hurt expression.

"He's the biggest idiot out there." I spoke without thinking, my voice stronger than it had been all morning. _Why would anyone leave this family? _I thought to myself.

She chuckled at my response, "Well I wouldn't say that, but thank you. Why don't we go down stairs and join everybody else?" She asked.

I smiled at her as I got up to walk out the door.

_Annabeth_

After that whole scene that morning and after about a thousand questions, the rest of the day was normal, well as normal as wizards can get.

After all of us had an amazing breakfast cooked by Mr. Weasley, we all split off into groups for most of the day. Percy and Leo ventured off with Fred and George to do gods knows what in the boys' room. The rest of us stayed behind in the living room and got to know each other more.

"So what's it like in America?" Ron asked Jason, who looked more than happy to answer.

"It's not that different really, the only difference to far is the accents and all the magic. Sure we went to a magic school, but I don't think any of us have ever had magic in the house before." He told Ron, and we all nodded in unison.

"Really, all of you are muggleborns?" Ginny asked with disbelief. All of us Americans exchanged glances and nodded again.

"Seriously? You would think that they would choose at least a few Half-Blood to protect Harry." Ron said, before his eyes widened in shock as he smacked his hand over his mouth, realizing what he had said. All of our heads snapped towards him as Hermione and Ginny shouted, "Ron!" at that same time.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked quickly, even I could hear the threat in my voice. Ron's ears started to grow pink as he looked at me with fear in his eyes, trying to think of something to say.

"We, uh…" Ron started, before Hermione interrupted.

"We overheard you all talking to the Order yesterday after dinner. They said that you were all sent here to protect Harry at Hogwarts. We all agreed not to tell you, because they said that we didn't need to know. And we agreed not to mention it, didn't we Ronald?" Hermione told us, glaring at Ron.

"I'm sorry, it just came out!" Ron defended, his ears and face now a slight shade of pink.

"It's alright." Piper told them calmly. We all looked at her, questioning how she thought that it was even the slightest bit okay.

"Wait, it is?" Hermione asked her in disbelief. Piper nodded in response.

"Yes, in fact, I think you were right, when you said none of you need to know any of that." Piper said simply.

"Actually, it would be simply amazing if you could just forget about that entire experience, if you could be kind enough to do that for me." She told them smiling sweetly, putting every ounce of charmspeak she had in her voice. Over the years I had learned to ignore it when it wasn't directed at me, and I watched Hermione Ron and Ginny's expressions faded so that they looked dazed and confused.

"Sure, we can do that." Ron said like her was in another world, blinking a few times.

"Perfect! Could you tell me who else knows please?" Piper asked, jumping out of her seat.

"Fred and George." Ginny said still in a daze. Piper smiled at her comment.

"Thanks!" She exclaimed, before she ran off to Fred and George's room to wipe their memories as well. Don't get me wrong, I love Piper to death, but she could scare me with what she could do with that charmspeak of hers.

"So, what Hogwarts house do you guys belong to again?" Jason asked suddenly, trying to get their minds off the subject so they could completely forget about it. It seemed to work to, because they all snapped into focus. I had no idea what he meant by Houses though, but I decided not to question it right then.

"Oh we're all in Gryffindor." Hermione said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"What houses do you think you all will be sorted into?" She asked us. I didn't answer, her considering that someone else was probably going to answer for me. "_Gryffindor? Houses? Sorting?"_ I thought to myself, "_Dumbledore forgot to tell us about that."_

"I honestly don't know. I mean considering that Gryffindor is the house of the _brave_, Ravenclaw is the house of the _smart, _Hufflepuff is the house of the _loyal_, and Slytherin is the house of the _cunning,_ I personally think that we could all fit into Gryffindor, but I'm not sure." Nico said to Hermione, putting an emphasis on the four words of the prophecy, making sure that we all understood what he was saying.

I got it right away, my mind went in a million different directions, trying to figure out a million different things at once.

"That would be amazing if you were all in the same house as us!" Ginny exclaimed, bringing me back to attention. I looked around the room and all Hazel had the same expression that I assumed my face had, a look of complete shock and realization, thankfully the wizards didn't seem to notice. The guys didn't seem shocked at all, in fact, they were looking indirectly at me and Hazel, trying to make sure that we understood.

"Yeah that would be really cool." Frank said quickly, making sure that they silence didn't last for too long for them to notice something was up.

Just then, we heard the door swing open behind us. We all looked back to see a scrawny boy standing in the doorway. He was wearing clothes that were a bit big on him, and he had black hair and green eyes that reminded me a bit of Percy, but the similarities ended there. He was much shorter than Percy and was wearing big round glasses on the bridge of his nose, on his forehead he had a very noticeable scar in the shape of a lightning bolt.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed, running over to him and practically tacked him with a hug. Ron pushed past us to go and join the hug and say hi to his best friend while Ginny stayed sitting and just waved shyly. We all stood up at the sound of his name, suddenly very interested in him.

"Hi." He said with a slight attitude, awkwardly greeting his friends. Hermione started going on a rant about how they couldn't arrest him because it was against the law. He looked away from her and started looking around the room, his eyes stopping when they fell on us.

"Who are they?" He asked pointing to us.

"Oh, their exchange students from America, they're going to Hogwarts this year and since they have nowhere else to stay, Mrs. Weasley offered to have them stay here." Hermione told him. He looked at us again and I couldn't tell if he was confused of offended by that information.

"And you couldn't tell me this?" Harry asked, glaring at his friends.

"Well, we wanted to write you but-"Hermione started.

"But what? How hard is it to send an owl my way, I've been at the Dursely's for months now and I haven't heard a single word from any of you." Harry told them accusingly. None of us had the chance to even speak before he started to chew out his friends.

"_Great, the kid we swore on the River Styx to protect is the poster boy for moody teenagers._" I thought to

"We wanted to write you, but Dumbledore said-"Hermione started again before Harry interrupted her.

"Dumbledore said? I'm the one who saw him come back and I'm not even allowed to be informed about what we found out? The only form of news I've been getting is The Daily Prophet and all I've learned is that the entire world thinks that I'm a fake and that I'm saying all of this for attention. Not to mention, I was attacked by dementors yesterday so now I'm probably going to be expelled." Harry told them, basically yelling at that point. Harry's friends all stared at him, dumbstruck, trying to figure out what to say.

"Well, um, it's nice to meet you Harry." Frank said, growing red in the face after he spoke. Harry looked at us like he was noticing us for the first time.

"Sorry mate, I'm just a little worked up. My name's Harry Potter, but you probably already know that." Harry said, running his hand through his messy hair, revealing a lightening shaped scar on his forehead.

"Yeah, we kind of figured. I'm-" I started, but was interrupted by pounding feet on coming down the stairs. We all looked over to see Fred, George, Percy and Leo running down the stairs, laughing their asses off.

"Harry, nice of you to join the party! This is Percy and Leo, the greatest Americans you will ever meet." Fred/George laughed (still wasn't sure which one was which). Percy flashed the dorkiest smile and saluted Harry, then broke down laughing. I covered my hand with my mouth and started to chuckle at his response.

"You're such an idiot." I told him, still laughing. He looked over at me and flashed that same dorky smile, which made my heart do a little flip flop.

"Correction; I'm _your _Idiot." Percy said, strutting over to me. He quickly pulled me into a hug and wouldn't let go, despite my protests. Realizing this is a fight that I could not win I gave up and buried my face in his neck, still smiling as he rocked me back and forth.

I tried to pull away again, but that just made him hold on tighter. He pulled his head back to look at me, with a fake offended look on his face.

"Don't you love me?" He pouted. I rolled my eyes and pushed back again as he continued to laugh.

"Let go of me Percy." I demanded.

"You can get out of Percy-jail if I get a kiss." He told me.

I raised my eyebrows, "_Percy-jail?"_ I laughed, mocking him.

"Oh get a room you two!" Jason whined. I quickly gave him a kiss as he held me there for a few seconds, then finally released me.

Percy looked at Harry then pointed to me, "That's mine." He warned in a playful way.

Harry looked to us, blushing a bit, trying to avoid direct eye contact.

"Yeah I kind of got that idea."

After we all properly introduced ourselves without any nauseating couple stuff, Harry was reunited with Sirius, which I have to admit was a heartwarming scene. If I didn't know any better, I'd say Sirius was his father.

We met the rest of the Order over dinner, well the ones who stayed for dinner. Only Tonks and Mad Eye Moody stayed, the rest of the order left before we got a chance to say hi. Tonks was a huge hit with just about everybody, especially Frank. Since she was some type of shape shifter, Animagus I think, she entertained us by transforming her face so she had a duckbill or a beak instead of a mouth. Frank latched onto her immediately, considering he was basically do the same thing. He spent most of the dinner talking to her, and she happily listened.

Mad Eye was a different story. We wondered at first why he was called Mad Eye, but the question was answered right away when we saw his large eye basically popping out of its socket, moving frantically out of sync with the other.

I could tell that he wasn't a people person. He didn't say much at the dinner table, and when he did say something he was very straight forward with it, not sugarcoating anything. The only person out of the eight who seemed to feel comfortable around him was Leo, which wasn't very surprising.

After dinner Ron decided to teach us all how to play wizard's chess, which wasn't much different from normal chess, but much cooler. After about an hour of the Brits vs American game filled with scream and throwing the board across the room, it was down to Ron and me.

"Nice move." Ron told me looking down at the board.

"But not good enough. Knight to E5." He said with a smirk on his face. The knight moved across the board and smashed my pawn, the only piece that was blocking him from reaching my king.

"Check." He said smiling. Fred and George high fived behind him, thinking that they just won.

"Nice move, but not good enough. Queen to E5." I said, feeling a smirk grow on my face as the one on Ron's faded. The queen slid across the open path that Ron had just made by moving his knight and crushed the knight. Now there was no way he could win, he barely had any pieces left on the board and the ones that were left were too far away to protect his king.

"Check." I said, watching Ron whimper in his seat.

His eyes scanned the board frantically, searching for a way to prevent what he knew was going to happen. After about 30 seconds of silence, his face fell as he grumpily muttered, "Pawn to A3."

The pawn moved to A3, capturing my only pawn left on the board. But it didn't matter, I had already won.

"Check mate." I said, as a roar of applause erupted behind me. I was surprised how much we got into the game, considering it was a game of chess and over half of us didn't have the attention span for it.

"We won! In your face!" Leo yelled, jabbing his finger towards Fred. Fred groaned and shoved a hand in his pocket, pulling out a few gallons and unwillingly handed them over to Leo.

"Thank you." Leo smirked, counting the money to make sure it was all there. I rolled my eyes at them as I felt Percy hug me from behind.

"That's my wise girl!" He yelled in my ear.

"Beginners luck I'd say." Ron mumbled, slouching down in his chair, putting his head in his hand.

"Keep telling yourself freckles." Leo said, clapping Ron on the back.

"Did you just call me freckles?" Ron asked, his voice higher than usually and ears growing slightly pink.

"Yep." Leo told him, waving him off. Ron opened his mouth to argue, but seeing that Leo was already making conversation with Hazel, showing off his new found profit, he saw that it was pointless and pouted to himself.

"Are you all still up?" Mrs. Weasley asked. We all stopped talking and looked toward the doorway to see her standing in her nightgown, looking irritated.

"It's nearly midnight, get to bed all of you!" She yelled, throwing her arm in the air and turning out of the door, muttering something to herself.

"Alright let's get to bed." Jason said, pushing himself out of his chair. The others all muttered in process, the boyfriends kissed the girlfriends, and we all said goodnight and started to our rooms.

"Hey Annabeth, can I talk to you for a second?" Hermione asked me. I turned around to see she made her way over to the corner of the room, away from everybody else.

"Yeah sure." I said, a little skeptical of what she wanted. Even though I hadn't known her for long, I could tell that that girl was too smart for her own good. If anyone here were to catch onto the fact that we were lying about most of our past, it would be her.

"What's up?" I asked, trying not to show my suspicion.

"I saw what your nightmares did to you earlier today, and I can't imagine what it's like to get dreams _that_ bad, and you said that you got then frequently. I couldn't stand seeing you like that, so I asked Mrs. Weasely to whip up some of this when you guys were eating lunch with the others, since I can't legally do it myself." She held out a small glass bottle, filled to the top with a purple liquid.

"Thanks Hermione…what exactly is it?" I asked her, taking the bottle from her.

"It's a potion for a dreamless sleep." Hermione told me.

"Dreamless sleep?" I asked, my eyes widening and my pulse getting quicker.

"Yes, it's known to have some small side effects but-" Hermione started, but I didn't let her finish. I pulled her into a tight hug in the middle of her sentence, forgetting how to breathe for a second.

_No more nightmares._ I thought to myself. No more seeing Percy die horrible, painful deaths. No more visiting the pits of my own personal hell every single night. No more waking up screaming and scaring Percy and everyone I care about half to death.

I pulled away, grabbing Hermione's shoulders and feeling happier than I've felt in over two years.

"Are you crying?" She asked me as I suddenly became aware of the tears running down my face.

I quickly wiped them away, realizing that I was probably scaring her. I couldn't stop smiling though, and I couldn't stop laughing.

"Hermione, I can't thank you enough." I beamed, kissing her on the check. She started smiling to, getting a little red in the face.

"There is no need to thank me, it's really not that hard to put together." She explained, scratching the back of her neck.

"Were they really that bad?" She asked me.

"Yeah, they were." I laughed, wiping away more tears, trying to will myself not to stop crying.

"You'll be okay, right?" She asked me.

"You have no idea." I told her. She laughed and pulled me into another hug, and I happily hugged her back.

She pulled back, "Let's get to bed shall we?" she asked.

We laughed together like we had known each other for years as we made our way to the bedroom.

"If anyone asked, I never cried." I said quickly.

"Done." She answered, laughing to herself.

**Hey guys, look I'm not dead. I know I'm as shocked as you.**

**So in the past month filled with a 400 page book that I had to finish in 2 days (procrastination for the win), 2 weeks of band camp and school starting, I finally got around to finishing the chapter! (Which turned out worse than I wanted, but I owe you guys something.) Also, sorry if the chess game was off, I have never played chess before and I had to learn over google.**

**The story should be picking up in the next chapter or two, and I have big plans for this story. And sorry if some of the characters were a bit OOC in this chapter, I wanted some heartwarming moments.**

**(PS Annabeth and Hermione ARE NOT A THING. The kiss was an act of pure gratitude, not sexual in anyway.)**

**As always, your reviews/favorites/follows are always appreciated!**


	6. Chapter 6

_Leo_

The rest of the time that we spent at the safe house went rather fast, a lot faster than I had wanted it to go.

For the next week or so that we were there, we got to know Harry a bit more. He wasn't all that bad, but I could tell that that kid was suffering from major PTSD, and if there's anyone who could recognize it, it would be a demigod. We decided not to ask what was bothering him so much, we knew how hard it was to talk about something like that, if he wanted to tell us he could tell us when he was ready.

He ended up having the trial a few days after he arrived, and I found the whole thing completely ridicules. I mean, he used the spell out of self-defense and even I knew that was perfectly legal. Also underage magic was not a serious crime, it was basically the equivalent of a guy taking a woman's purse that only has 20 bucks and some makeup in it. Any other case would have probably not even require a trial, but no, Harry's case required a full court and they were treating it like Harry committed murder.

Even though he was a bundle of nerves for the few days leading up to it, he got through it just fine, with a little help from our good friend Dumbledore. Harry told us how he came there, completely changed the Ministry's mind with his words of wisdom and left without saying anything, which didn't sound like something Dumbledore would do. From the short time that we spent with him, I would have guessed that he would at least sat Harry down for some tea to talk about the meaning of life with him.

But no, he walked in, defended Harry and then walked out, and that was the end of that. He got home, and we all celebrated for a little bit, and it was worth celebrating. We were all worried about how the trial was going to go, epically the eight. If he lost, then we would all have to suddenly drop out of school and make up some bullshit excuse why we all just happened drop out and move into the house next to Harry's and pray that they bought it. Harry winning made out lives ten times easier.

We spent the next few days hanging out with everybody there, and getting to know them more. They weren't all that bad, in fact, they were all pretty great. Percy and I spent most of our time with Fred and George, who were honestly the best set of twins I have ever met. Not only were they huge pranksters, they wanted to open a prank shop when they were older to sell a whole punch of novelty items so people could be huge assholes to their friends. Not to mention they made most of the products themselves, which was a huge plus on my list.

I made the mistake of offering to test one of their little treats that they whipped together, needless to say I was throwing up my breakfast for the next few hours before the effects of the treats finally wore off. Even though both Fred and George got a smack over the head from Mrs. Weasley, all of the kids got a good laugh out of it, I had to say that I did to. I mean, come on, I was the one stupid enough to trust those assholes.

I wanted to badly to help with what the stuff that they were building, but I couldn't. It wasn't like I couldn't help them, because I definitely could, I just wasn't supposed to. We were given very strict orders not to show any signs of our heritage, and me understanding how to build things that people go to school for years to even begin to understand was just too risky to reveal.

Plus, I enjoyed watching their faces as they grow more and more irritated as they tried to build their stuff. I could build the things that they were building in about 20 minutes max, but watching them go on for hours trying to put together parts that obviously would never work was downright funny.

Unfortunately, they didn't spend too much time on the building by hand part, considering they had magic powers and magic wands. Most of the stuff that they put together was done by magic or by mixing some magic stuff together. I'm not going to lie, watching them preform their spells was just as much of a show as watching them fail.

We spent about five more days there before we had to leave for Hogwarts. The Weasleys, Hermione Harry were extremely excited to go back to school, and considering that most kids would rather die than go back made me a little less nervous.

That doesn't mean that I wasn't nervous, in fact, all of us eight were. We were going to a school, which is a problem in itself, since none of us could last very long before we got in major trouble or attacked by some monster, and we couldn't risk putting Harry in any kind of danger (which we all knew was unavoidable). And to add to all of that, we weren't really wizards, and we were going to a school, for wizards. You do the math.

The morning we left I was in the boys' room, tinkering with the little surprise that I brought in my trunk. I made a few more adjustments to make sure that it could go undetected and still work on Hogwarts grounds, since magic apparently interferes with technology.

I kept working until I heard the pitter patter of feet running up the stairs. I quickly slammed the trunk closed and put my tools back into my belt which had been disguised to look like a normal belt. Don't ask me how the pockets work, the whole magic thing was really not my forte. I usually just shove the tools in the belt without looking, to save my head from the massive headaches I gave myself trying to figure out how it worked.

Once everything looked normal, I saw a random book sitting on a bed. I quickly grabbed it, opening to a random page and sat on top of the trunk innocently, pretending to be engrossed by the random blobs of letters written on the pages that my dyslexic brain so kindly laid out for me.

"Hey Leo we gotta-" Piper said suddenly, bursting through the door. I looked up from the book and I met her gaze as she eyed me suspiciously.

"Are you reading a book?" She asked me in disbelief.

"Piper McBeautyQueen, I am offended! I can read a book, I am an intellectual and thought provoking human being." I argued, acting as offended as I could, adding a little gasp for effect.

She rolled her eyes, "You're dyslexic dumbass."

"And proud of it." I answered, shutting the book promptly. I pushed myself off the trunk and turned to her with a wild grin on my face.

"Who did you think you were gonna fool? We all know that you can't read for crap." She asked me.

"Not all of us, to others it would look like I was getting a head start on my first lesson in…" I looked down at the title of the book. "You know what I'm not going to even try to pronounce that"

"'_Transfiguration',_ whatever the hell that means. Anyway, we gotta go or we're gonna miss the train." She answered, starting off down the stairs. I grabbed the book and my trunk, which thankfully didn't weigh 10,000 pounds like the last time. All of my other stuff was already downstairs on my trolley. I did one last sweep of the room to make I wasn't forgetting anything and headed down stairs.

When I got down there everybody was standing around the living room, but that wasn't what caught my attention. IN the center of the room along with everybody else sat a random shaggy black dog laying his head down on Harry's knee.

"What's with the dog?" I ask,

"Snuffles, he's my dog from back home, my aunt and uncle dropped him off last night so I could say goodbye to him." Harry explained. I looked at him with doubt, considering that from what I heard, his aunt and uncle wouldn't be so kind as to drop off his pet dog just so he could say goodbye.

"Don't your aunt and uncle hate you?" I questioned, regretting it almost instantly. "Hate" probably wasn't the best word to use in that situation.

"They do, that's why they dropped him off, they only put up with him while I'm living there. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley offer to look after him while we're at Hogwarts." He explained once more. I looked to Mrs. Weasley for conformation, and she nodded yes while patting Snuffles head.

"What about Hedwig?" I asked, remembering Harry's snowy white owl sitting on top of his trunk on his trolley.

"He's my pet, not theirs. As long as I look after him and he doesn't make too much noise they couldn't care less about him." He told me.

"Looking after Snuffles won't be that different then looking after you lot, now let's get going. We need to get to Kings Cross Station before 11." Mrs. Weasley said, shooing the twins out the door.

"Wait, shouldn't Sirius be coming?" Annabeth asks, looking around the room for him. Before she said anything, I didn't even notice he was gone.

"He fell ill last night, he's resting in bed I'm afraid he can't come send all of you off, and he sends all of you his best wishes for a fantastic year." Lupin tells her. Annabeth slowly nodded, not looking too convinced. She looked to Frank, who was eyeing the dog suspiciously. I looked around the room and noticed that the rest of the eight were just about as convinced as I was.

"Come on, everybody out, move it!" Mrs. Weasley yelled, throwing her arms in the air and breaking the silence. We all snapped into focus and acted like nothing was wrong and quickly headed out the door onto the streets of London.

The car that we were taking to the train station was an older, very British looking model. From the condition it was in, it looked like it was down to its last days. I would say that it could probably hold less than half the people it needed to take, if we were lucky.

"Where's the other car?" Nico asked, seeing no other cars parked on that side of the street.

"This is the only one dear, now everybody in." Mrs. Weasley answered, closing the door to the base of the Order and hurrying along the pathway to join us. The building behind her then started to shift, hiding Number twelve between numbers ten and eleven so it could no longer be seen. It still baffled me that the mist could hid something like that, consider the entire complex moved with people in it.

"Leo, it's a magic building, get over it and get it!" Someone yelled behind me, snapping out of the trance I didn't realize I was in.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, don't get your panties in a twist." I told the voice, turning around to see it that everyone else was in the car and some was nice enough to throw my luggage in the trunk for me.

I shrugged and started to climb into the car, knowing that I was probably going to have to sit on someone's lap considering how small the car was. But when I got in there, everybody fit perfectly with an open seat for me, even the dog got his own seat.

I knew that there was no way physics would allow this many seats in the car, but I tried not to dwell over it, they probably charmed the car or something.

"No one told me that you guys had a Tardis." I breathed, looking around the car as I was buckling my seatbelt.

"A what?" Ron asked.

"Never mind."

"Alright let's turn on this little…thing here, a radar I think it's called!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed, trying to make light conversation.

"You mean a radio?" Nico suggested.

"That's it my boy! Now let's see here…" Mr. Weasley said, his fingers floating over the buttons, trying not to make it obvious that he had no idea what he was doing.

"Here, I got it." I sighed, sitting up in my seat so I could reach the controls. I pressed a few buttons and Dark Horse by Katy Perry started playing loudly throughout the car.

Mr. Weasley started to dance to the beat the way dads do in an attempt to look cool. When everyone stared at him blankly, he got the message put the car into drive and, surprisingly, pulled out onto the street smoothly without any problems.

And just like that, we were on our way to Hogwarts.

It took about 20 minutes to get to Kings Cross Station, which is not what I pictured when we were told that we would be taking a magical train to a magical school. The train station looked normal, just like any other train station I would expect to see.

We spent another 10 minutes walking to the platform that the train was going to be picking us up from. We didn't ask what platform it was, we just followed the Weasleys, Moody and Tonks, considering that they have been doing it for years. We received many weird stares as we walked, which is understandable considering that about 10 plus kids were pushing huge carts down the middle of a busy train station, including one cart that had a snowy white owl in a cage on top of the luggage and a black dog right beside it. And it didn't help that we were guided by a very large man who had to use a walking cane and a girl with pink hair, which was hardly a normal sight.

After Harry said goodbye to his dog in a private room (don't ask), we kept walking until Moody and Tonks made a sudden stop in the middle of the train station.

"Here we are, Platform Nine and Three Quarters." Tonks said, eyeing the place like it brought up childhood memories.

"Platform what?" Hazel asked.

"Nine and Three Quarters." Hermione repeated. I looked around for the sign for the platform, but the only ones I saw were the ones for nine and ten.

"Do you mean Platform Nine?" Percy asked, looking very confused.

"No, it's a hidden platform, you see that brick wall over there?" Ron explained to Percy.

"Yeah, what about it." He said.

"Well in order to get to the platform, you have to run through it." Ron explained again, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"I'm sorry, did you just say that we have to run through a wall?" Annabeth asked, looking like she was about to call out Ron for his stupidity.

"Yeah, here let me show you." Ron said, taking off toward the wall like he was going for a morning jog.

Annabeth tried to grab him, but failed, and all eight of us cringed when he was about to make impact, but instead of slamming into the brick wall like an idiot, he ran right through it and disappeared into the other side.

"Merlin, your faces!" Tonks cried, laughing her ass of at our completely shocked expressions. Annabeth was turning red in the face, while Percy stood next to her, laughing with his head dropped in his palm.

"Of course they can run through fucking walls, 'cause that makes complete sense." He sighed, his head in his hand, looking about 100% done with everything.

"Watch your mouth boy." Moody grumbled, looking down menacingly at Percy.

"Yes sir." Percy said, turning away to avoid eye contact with him.

"Is it just me, or do the two guys behind us look a little off to you?" Jason suddenly whispered in my ear, throwing me off guard. Understanding what he wanted me to do, I turned around in the in the most casual way I could. My eyes instantly went to two guys standing behind us in suits, eyeing us down like we were the scum of the Earth.

"I think their just angry business men who don't like teenagers, I don't think their much of a threat." I told him. He squinted at them once more, not looking convinced.

"Yeah you're probably right." He agreed, even though he clearly didn't.

"Why do you all look so worried, just don't hesitate when you're running and nothing will happen." Fred said from beside me, clasping a hand over my shoulder. I jumped and turned to see both of the twins smirking smugly at us.

"What's the matter, they have secret entrances like this all over the world, you had to have come across one at least one." Hermione told us.

"I don't think they had them where we're from." Nico said, looking a bit agitated.

"Trust me mate, you're perfectly safe." George said, before taking off and running into the brick wall.

"Don't the mortals see anything?" Percy asked.

"Mortals?" Tonks asked. Realizing what Percy had said, I felt a pit drop in my stomach.

"Uh, we call muggles mortals in America." Percy said a bit too quickly. I could feel my face growing hot as I looked around our group, silently praying to Zeus that they would buy that excuse.

"Well that's a bit odd, but then again you Americans say a lot of weird stuff." Ginny said.

"Yeah we do, come on lets go." Annabeth stated, breathing out an ever so slight sigh of relief. She then took off and ran right into the wall, and instead of smashing into it, she ran right through it just like Ron did.

I can tell that I wasn't the only one who expected her to smash into it. When she started to run, Percy had to stop himself from reaching out and grabbing her arm, but he still stiffened right before she would have made impact. Half of our group winced along with him, including me.

"See look, perfectly safe." Moody comforted. "Now off you go before the entrance closes off."

We all obeyed without a word, and then one by one we were running into walls and disappearing into who knows what. When it was my turn, I took one last look behind me out of habit, to make sure that we weren't being followed. Everything was the same as before, even the two dudes in suits, looking like they could see us running through walls clear as day.

That's when I started to believe that they weren't total jerks who hated teenagers.

I started going over options in my head. I couldn't pull out a hammer and bash their faces in, it would cause too big of a scene. I couldn't go up and confront them and I couldn't risk blowing our cover.

So I swallowed the new pit rising in my stomach, telling me that I should be on high alert, and ran towards the wall.

_Don't hesitate._ I told myself, repeating Fred's words. I have to say I did pretty well on the "no hesitating" part, even though every fiber of my being was telling me to stop. I still closed my eyes when my trolley was a few inches away from smacking into the wall, but I kept running. Instead of feeling the impact of a brick wall like I should have, it felt like nothing was in my way.

I stopped after a few feet and opened my eyes. Instead of seeing Kings Cross station, I saw something that looked very similar to it, but different in almost every way.

The first thing that I saw was the sign that looked like it said something along the lines of "Platform 9 ¾," which was definitely not there a few seconds ago. The next thing I noticed was the huge locomotive train blowing smoke into the packed crowd of kids and parents rushing around. Most of the kids were dressed like normal kids, but a lot of their parents were wearing long robes much like our uniform for school.

_Okay, this defiantly the magic school train._ I thought to myself. Another thing I noticed was the lack of technology. There were no light bulbs hanging in the ceiling, just torches lining the walls and sunlight coming in from the roof. There were no three year olds playing on their parent's iPad to keep them quiet and there were no lone teenagers with headphones in, blocking the rest of the world out.

_This is going to be harder than I thought. _

"Leo come on, you're blocking the entrance." Annabeth said, pulling my arm as I stumbled out of the way. I didn't even realize that most of our group was standing a few feet away from me, I was too awestruck to notice. That seemed to be happening to me a lot lately.

"Stunning isn't it." Annabeth said to me, leaning in so only I could hear her.

"Unreal." I agreed, still eyeing the place from top to bottom.

Another figure burst through the brick wall, and my heart almost froze. For a split second, it looked like it was one of the two dudes that were staring at us before. My hand reached down to my belt as I summoned a hammer, keeping it in the pocket so no one could see it as I took a defensive stance.

The man straightened up and just before I started rushing him, he turned to face us.

_Holy shit you idiot!_ I yelled to myself as I saw the face of Lupin looking back on us, smiling down at us.

"Alright I think that's just about everyone…Leo are you alright?" Lupin asked me. Everyone looked to me, and I wasn't aware I still had that murderous face that I may or may not have practiced in the mirror from time to time.

"Um, yeah I just thought you were somebody else, I'm cool." I told him, trying to calm myself down. It wasn't working very well, my heart was still pumping and I could still feel the adrenaline flowing through my veins.

The rest of the eight has seen me get like this far too many times, so they knew instantly that I thought that something was up. They all straightened their backs and went on alert, their hands moving over their weapons that had been disguised to look like normal items that you could carry around. Percy and Jason both moved to either side of Harry, scanning the room for any sign of a threat without making it obvious that they were. I scanned the room along with everyone else, but nothing was out of the ordinary, unless you count the magic train.

"You guys alright?" Harry asked, backing away from Percy and Jason. It took me a second to realize that we weren't being too sly with the whole danger thing, because everyone was staring at us with a look of confusion.

"What, yeah we're fine. Just a bit nervous that's all." Percy told them, trying to change the subject.

"There's no need to be nervous, you'll all be just fine." Mrs. Weasley said to us, trying to calm our nerves. "Now all of you on the train, it will be leaving any minute now!" She yelled, shooing us off like a flock of chickens.

We did as we were told and we made our way to the train. We pushed past many parents telling their kids goodbye and people just standing around waiting to for the train to leave.

"What have we here Potter?" I heard a very cocky voice yell. I spun around to see a boy with slicked back blonde hair, wearing a proud smirk that only a cocky little daddy's boy could muster up.

Oh was I going to have fun with him.

"Are these the new American students?" He spat at Harry, looking like he was holding in a laugh. "I have to say I'm surprised, only one of them is fat!" My mouth literally dropped open at what he had just said, I turned back to look at Frank, who already lost most of the color in his face.

"Excuse me?" Hazel snapped, stepping in front of Frank protectively.

"Back off Malfoy." Harry said, trying to push past to get to the train, only to be pushed back by this 'Malfoy' kid.

"You heard me, your friend's meets my expectations of what you scum would look like when I heard Americans were being accepted this year." Malfoy sneered, crossing his arms. I looked back at Frank again, whose face was now beat red. He was slouching, looking towards the ground like he used to before he got that muscle boost from his dad.

I turned back around to face Malfoy, "Dude is that really necessary?" I asked him, speaking up for Frank since that little prick took his self-esteem and knocked it down about five pegs.

"Crabbe! Get over here, and listen to how these kids talk, they sound idiotic." He yelled over his shoulder, completely ignoring me. A boy that was a lot taller than Malfoy, even a bit taller than me (though I would tower over him if I looked normal) joined him at his side, studying us. He didn't look like Malfoy at all, he had dark buzz cut and had a stupid look plastered on his face, which I couldn't tell if it was permeant or not.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Annabeth said loudly, almost shouting, causing some heads to turn our way. Because all we needed was more attention.

"There is nothing wrong with me, in fact I think that I'm one of the only sane ones here. Hogwarts has been an exclusive school for as long as it has been around, only allowing children who live in Britain to attend. Now, after centuries of this tradition, they let not one, but eight Americans in? It would be different in you were all first years, but you're all coming in during you're fifth year? It shows how far Hogwarts has fallen, I still can't believe Dumbledore even thought of accepting the likes of you." He said in his annoying stuck up voice. I have met plenty of monsters, giants, and Gods who hated me before, but this was the first time anything anyone said to me actually got to me. Probably because the insults weren't directed towards myself for once, they were directed to my friends, which made everything a whole lot worse.

I don't remember walking towards him, all I know was that within a few seconds of him saying that, I was inches away from his face.

"Listen here you little shit, I didn't want to cause problems, but we are way past that point now. If you say one more word about my friends I will bash your pretty little face in with a hammer." I growled, letting all of my anger flow into my words. For one glorious second, I saw his little arrogant smirk fade into a look of fear before he quickly regained control of himself and inched closer to my face, attempting to show the same look of rage I was giving him, and failing miserably.

"I'd like to see you try." He sneered, his voice deeper and more threating.

_If you insist_, I thought as my fist unconsciously curled into a ball. I pulled back and before he could realize what was happening and I punched him in the face. I didn't hit him with enough force to break anything, but I made damn sure it hurt like a bitch.

Loud gasps erupted from the crowd as I felt firm hands grab my shoulders and pull me back so I couldn't hit him again. It wasn't necessary, seeing Malfoy stumble back clutching his face and crying out in pain told me that one hit was enough to take him out.

"You- You hit me!" He screamed with his hand guarding his face, which was now covered in blood. Crabbe helped him stand up straight and a man with long blonde hair just like Malfoy's came bursting through the dead silent crowd to see if he was alright.

"Yeah I did, and next time you get that hammer, just like I promised." I mocked, a number of hands still holding me back from approaching Malfoy again.

The man turned around, his face red with furry. His long blonde hair framed his angular face, his long robes flowed behind him as he marched towards me, clanking his cane on the ground with anger.

"You!" He yelled directly in my face. It took didn't take much not to react the way I had in my head, I had had much worse get that close to me before. A middle age white man with a spooky walking stick wasn't that much of a threat.

"Me." I said bluntly, trying to look uninterested in the man yelling at me, whom I'm guessing is Malfoy's father. I have to say his reaction of was pretty priceless, the faces he made when he saw I wasn't scared of him were probably the highlight of my day.

"You just hit my son!" He growled, looking like he was about to murder me.

"That I did." I said as a matter-of-factly.

"I can have you expelled for that!" He yelled, his eyes beating with anger. Meanwhile behind him, I heard Malfoy whimper in pain and I couldn't suppress the little smirk that grew on my lips at the sound of it

"Actually you can't." I said simply, feeling the hands fall off of my arms as they realized that I had probably calmed down.

"Excuse me?" He asked, shocked that I would ever defy him. I know right, me defying authority? Never.

"You can't expel me." I said, sounding rather annoyed. He was so flabbergasted that he couldn't put his words together.

"You can't expel me because I'm not on school property. Yes I did punch your jerk son in the face, but the school year hasn't even started yet. And I know that we're about to go to school, but it is technically still summer vacation. The school year doesn't start until we get to the school itself. So therefore, I am not defying any school rules, so your argument is invalid." I argued, quoting the internet on that last part.

"Last call for the train!" Someone yelled, breaking the silence of the crowd. I kept eye contact with Malfoy's father as I pushed past him as I walked towards the train entrance, just like all of those bad ass scenes you see in all the movies.

"The moment you get sorted, 20 points will be deducted from your house. Everyone will hate you!" Malfoy yelled from behind me. I was tempted to turn around and tell him off again, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of reacting. Instead, I completely ignored him and made my way into the narrow corridors of the train, receiving many obvious stares and not so quite whispers.

"Who is he?"

"He just punched him."

"Did you see his face?"

"That little git deserved it."

The last one made me smile a bit.

I found an empty box and sat down, waiting for my friends to join me. I heard the rustling of footsteps coming up the corridor as I saw Percy appear through the window, checking in the box across from me, followed by everyone else.

They all saw me at the same time, and they rushed into the cart, not caring that it was not meant to hold that many people.

"You just punched Draco Malfoy in the face." Ron breathed, looking more dumbstruck than I had ever saw him. I felt another smirk grow on my lips.

"That I did." I said triumphantly.

"That was bloody brilliant mate!" Fred exclaimed, nodding with his twin in agreement.

"That was even better than the time Hermione punched him." Ron breathed again. As soon as he finished saying it, about 8 heads turned in sync to Ron in surprise.

"Wait, Hermione did what?" Annabeth asked, speaking for all of us.

"It was in 3rd year, you should have seen it. He called her a mudblood, and she had it with his crap. As soon as she threatened him, he backed into the wall scared out of his mind. After she punched him, he ran away like a little girl!" Harry exclaimed, most of us laughing at Harry's description of the event, even though I had no idea what a mudblood was.

"That's awesome Herms, so can I join the 'I-punched-Malfoy' Club?" I asked her in the most annoying way I could. All she did was rule her eyes at me.

"Honestly, we shouldn't be promoting violence, all it does is cause more trouble than it's worth." She argued, crossing her arms growing slightly pink in the face. I couldn't help but look around at all the demigods in the box, we were probably the most violent people she has ever met. I mean come on, we have a bad habit of killing anything that threatens us. And after everything that has happened to us in the past few years, I think anyone would.

"Can I still be in the club?" I pouted, making my eyes bigger than normal. This time Hermione couldn't hide her laughter this time, and she unwillingly started to giggle.

"Oh alright." She laughed, shaking her head. I held out my fist to her, which was now bruising slightly. Even though I hated the kid already, I have to say he had some pretty defined cheekbones.

She flinched away when she saw me raise my fist, thinking I was going to hit her.

"Did you seriously think I was going to hit you?" I asked, slightly offended that she actually thought I would do something like that to her.

"Well you started to raise your fist, and seeing what you did to Malfoy, I would rather not be on the receiving end on one of those punches." She argued, backing away from me slowly.

"It's called a fist bump, you take your fist and _lightly_ bump it against mine. It's an ancient tradition practiced in America." I told her, holding out my fist to Jason without looking away from her as an example. He returned it without saying a word, and I swung it back to her, motioning for her to try it. She looked uncomfortable as she raised her fist and bumped it awkwardly.

"We'll work on it." I told her, and she again rolled her eyes, starting to notice that that was an everyday thing for her.

"Where did you learn to punch like that?" George asked.

"My mom taught me when I was little." I told him, which made everyone's eyebrows raise, except the eight's, because they already knew.

"Your mum taught you how to do that?" Ginny said in surprise. I nodded my head.

"Yep, she told me that I would need to know how to defend myself if I ever got into a bad situation." I told them, remembering her having me punch a tire whenever she got a break in the shop, she kept working me and working me until I could throw a punch that would have send the big and tough 5th graders running for their mommies.

"Could you imagine mum teaching us how to throw a good punch?" George asked to no one in particular.

"Mum, teaching us how to _punch _people. Are you joking?" Fred answered. I laughed at the thought of Mrs. Weasley teaching mini Fred and George how to swing their arm in order to but enough force behind it to do some damage.

"We haven't even gotten to school yet, and we lasted literally 2 minutes without getting in trouble." Hazel laughed.

"Honestly what did you expect?" Jason answered, laughing along with her.

"Very true." She answered.

"So this year kicked off to a great start didn't it?" Annabeth asked, leaning back into Percy, preparing for the long trip to our new school.

I laughed at her reasoning, "Yeah I guess you could say that."

**I told myself I wasn't allowed to sleep till this was done.**

**Yay! Another chapter up and I have been waiting to write the next one since I started this story and I am super pumped (they're going to be sorted :D)! So on top of school and all of my after school activities, I'm going to try my best to get them up at as fast as possible, I swear.**

**PS: To all of my Nico fans who think that I have completely forgotten about him, I haven't! I have huge plans for him, don't you worry!**

hat much better to me. i,elves ,novielty itemsmet. Not only were they huge prankesters, they wanted to open a prank shop


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapter contains NO Blood of Olympus spoilers, so all of you have not read the final book are safe :)**

_Percy_

"You guys want some jelly beans?" Harry offered, holding out a small box he bought off of the Honeydukes Express Trolley. We were sitting in the train, trying to make light conversation after an immensely boring train ride. After everyone stopped freaking out about the Leo punching Draco, the ride became extremely uneventful. After a about an hour of trying to talk to each other, we all ended up sitting in silence. Annabeth ended up using me as a pillow for most of the ride, and I wasn't complaining, I think she even fell asleep for a little bit.

It wasn't until Harry bought just about everything from that all-you-can-eat-sweets trolley when we all started to talk again.

"Nah I'm good man." I told Harry, considering that I already had enough chocolate frogs for one day, I figured I didn't need any more sweets.

"I'll have some." Annabeth said, sitting up slightly to grab a jelly bean than laying back down onto me. She popped one in her mouth and started to chew. After only a few seconds of chewing, her face contorted into a look of confusion, and then a look of absolute disgust.

"Oh gods what is that!" She coughed, leaning up and grabbing the wrapper out of my hand and spitting out the jelly bean in her mouth. She coughed again as I sat straight up, hovering over her with worry.

"Are you okay?" I asked, starting to panic. She nodded her head while she continued to cough, not able to speak.

"What the hell was in that?" I asked Harry, trying not to raise my voice.

"I don't know!" He answered, looking confused as to why I looked so angry with him.

"Percy, it wasn't poison." Annabeth answered when she stopped coughing, trying to get the taste out of her mouth.

"Than what's wrong."

"It tasted like puke." She answered, her eyes watering slightly. After a few seconds of processing that she was not in fact dying, but she had just found the taste absolutely horrendous, I started to laugh.

"Gods Annabeth, you're not usually this over dramatic." I told her, pulling her into a hug and kissing her forehead.

"Did you see what color it was?" Fred asked.

"It was a light brown with little flecks of red." She answered, still looking like she was trying to recover from the taste.

"That was vomit." He answered simply.

"Wait what?" Annabeth asked.

"There is a flavor that is made to taste like vomit, Dumbledore told me about his experience with it once." Harry answered.

"Who in their right mind would buy those things?" Annabeth asked.

"The ones that are not made to taste like dirt or vomit are actually very good, but it is called Bertie Bott's EveryFlavor Beans. And when they say every flavor they mean _every _flavor, even the bad ones." Fred explained.

_Wizards are weird._ I thought to myself.

"Don't you have them in America?" He asked, looking suspicious.

"No, but we have regular Jelly Beans, which consist of only good flavors." Leo answered.

George opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off when Ron burst open the door followed by Hermione, both of whom didn't look as happy to be going back to school as they were when we got on the train. I guess their prefect meeting didn't go very well.

"Time to get your robes, we're going to be their soon." Hermione told us. I could tell that she didn't care about what she was saying, going by the outraged tone she said it in and the fact that she didn't even bother to look at us when she said it. I learned in the past week that if you don't want to sit and listen to someone rant on and on for an hour, then you don't ask Hermione what's wrong when she's angry or upset. So I let it go, and with that she turned on her heel and stormed off into the car across from us.

"Hey, see you in a bit." Annabeth told me, sitting up off of me. I sat up as well and she turned to me and did a not so quick peck on the lips.

"We're right here you know!" Ron yelled at us. Annabeth tried to pull away, but I grabbed the back her head and pulled her back in as I started to kiss her more passionately, raising my middle finger in the direction of Ron's voice in the process.

"Oh come on you two!" One of the twins yelled, whacking me in the side with one their shirts. I pulled away and raised my arms in defense, laughing my ass off as I did.

By the time I looked up, Annabeth was already half way to her car, and most of the guys were already in the car, going through their trunks and pulling out their school uniforms. Considering that we were all (supposedly) children, boys and girls changing in the same room together was a big no-no. We had all put each other's stuff in the proper cars before we sat down for the ride, so we wouldn't have to climb over each other with heavy luggage in our hands.

I jumped up to join them, pulling the trunk that said "Percy" down from the shelf.

"Why are you two always on top of each other?" George asked, hanging one of his robes up on the glass doors so no one could see in.

"I enjoy every second I have with her, because you never know when all of it will be gone in a flash." I told him cheerily, trying not to think of the times where that almost happened.

"Well that's a dark thought." He answered back.

"The world's a dark place." I told him simply.

He didn't answer me back, so I went rummaging through my trunk and pulled out a white button up shirt. I proceeded to take off my orange camp shirt, this particular one said "Happy Halloween!" on the front, and threw it in my trunk.

I craned my head back and did a sweep of the car, probably out of habit of checking my surroundings. The only thing that could have been considered dangerous was the fact that we might accidently smack each other in the face trying to put on our clothes. I did see Nico staring a bit too long at the boys changing, red in the face. I quickly elbowed him in the side, making him jump a bit, but he got the message, and went back to putting on his clothes.

I knew how hard he was trying to hide the fact that he was gay from the Weasleys, and I just wanted to make it a bit easier for him. He did a good job hiding it from us for years, but he finally came out about a year ago. I still remember his face when we told him that it didn't make any difference to us, and that we were happy for him. I don't think I've ever seen Nico's face flush that much. I mean, why wouldn't we accept him? Nico being gay was definitely a shock, but we have accepted a lot weirder things in the past.

We all threw on the rest of our uniforms, Leo making fun of how much of a stick Fred and George were, proceeded by Fred and George yelling "Well just look at yourself!" in their creepy unison. We all got a good laugh out of that one.

When I had my entire uniform on, I still couldn't believe I was actually wearing it. I had never worn anything along the lines of dress pants in the past or even a sweater vest, and don't even get me started on the robes. I didn't even know how to tie the tie, so I just put it around my neck and let it hang like a scarf.

A voice suddenly echoed through the train, "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

"You guys excited to be sorted?" Harry asked, throwing on his robes. I looked around at all of us, and none of us seemed very excited about it.

"I never got the whole 'sorting' thing, we never did that at our old school." Frank said, trying to tie his tie.

"What!? They don't do sorting in America?" Ron yelled.

"I'm pretty sure it's just a Hogwarts thing." Jason said, closing his trunk and sitting down on the seat.

"You're missing out mate! It's simple really, there are four houses, you get put in one based on your personality. You'll live in the house quarters, you'll eat with your house, spend your free time in the house common room. It basically it becomes your new home for the year. You can also earn house points by getting questions right and being on good behavior and things like that. At the end of the year, whichever house has the most points wins the house cup!" Ron explained, like he had planned out what he was going to say in his head, which he probably did.

"That sounds pretty cool, what house are you guys in?" Leo asked, taking his seat in between the twins.

"We're all in Gryffindor! House of the brave, the best one of them all!" Fred told us, a subtle hint of pride at the mention of their house, pointing to the small design on his robe. The design was mostly red and gold, with a roaring lion in the middle. I also noticed how his tie matched the colors as well.

"All of you?" Jason asked.

"Yep, there isn't a Weasley who isn't a proud Gryffindor." George explained, again with pride in his voice. I could tell by the way their all of the Gryffindor's face lit up at the mention of their house's name that they might be taking this whole house thing a bit too seriously. I could also tell that everyone probably takes that much pride in their house to. I knew that there was no way that all four of the houses got along with egos like that.

"What are the other three houses?" Leo asked, playing dumb and trying to look very interested in what they were saying, and for Leo that was pretty impressive.

"Well, there's Hufflepuff, who are the loyal and kindhearted ones. They tend to be nice to try to be nice to everyone, therefore they get along with the most students. Then there's Ravenclaw, they have all the super smart kids. They're pretty cool, but they can get really competitive, always trying to get the highest grade." Ron explained.

"What about the last one?" I asked, even though I already knew all the names to the house, and what personality trait they welcomed, considering the houses were a line in the prophecy. And when you figure out a line of a prophecy, you don't just forget it.

"Slytherin." Harry spat. I was almost impressed on how fast their faces went from beaming with pride to seething with hatred within that small amount of time. It was almost in sync too.

"Okay so I'm guessing you guys aren't fans of Slytherin?" I guessed, trying to lighten things up.

"Draco Malfoy is Slytherin's male prefect this year." Ron groaned.

_So that's why he looked like he could kick a puppy when he got back from the meeting._ I thought.

"Well, if they're all like him, I already hate them." Leo said, sounding rather annoyed.

"They are, they're the house of the cunning, and they'll do whatever they have to in order to get what they want." Fred said, perking up at the opportunity to trash Slytherin.

"Come on they can't be so bad." Nico chimed in, sounding unusually optimistic.

"Most of you-know-who's followers came from that house." Ron told us, like he had just proved his point.

"Who?" I asked. Four heads snapped towards me, eyeing me like I had just told them the truth about our lives.

"Who doesn't know who you-know-who is?" Ron quivered, his voice higher than normal.

"Muggleborn, remember?" I said, pointing out the obvious. They all just kept staring at me with those wide eyes, and it was kind of starting to freak me out.

"He-who-must-not-be-named is the darkest wizard to walk to ever walk the Earth. About a decade ago, he was at the peak of his power, anyone who wouldn't join him would be killed on spot. Once he recruited them, he would give them something called a dark mark on their arm, to identify them as his followers. It was called that because he would use the same symbol to mark the houses of his next victims. If you came home to find it floating above your house, you were going to die, there was no way out of it." Fred explained in a hushed tone, like he was scared to talk about it too loud. I have to admit that the thought of it was pretty terrifying. I imagined walking home from school back in New York, with the dark mark floating above my apartment door, knowing that whoever was inside, most likely Paul and Mom, were already dead. I quickly shook off those thoughts, I had already imagined and lived enough scenarios where things like that happened.

"Damn, he sounds nice." Leo said, trying to make everyone laugh, as always. Jason and I cracked a smile, but the Weasley's and Harry glared at him, not find his remark the least bit funny.

"He killed both of my parents when I was only a year old, and he tried to kill me to, but somehow I lived. Voldemort ripped my life out of my hands before I could even speak. So yeah, he was a real nice guy." Harry sneered at Leo. Silence rippled throughout the car when he was done speaking, the only noises coming from the laughter of kids outside our door. I felt a ping of guilt grow inside me, feeling awful that I found that the even the slightest bit funny. I already knew Harry's story, The Boy Who Lived, but it was even more horrible hearing it come through his own words. One thing that I noticed was that how he, the one who should be the most scared out of him out of all of us, was the only one brave enough to say his name. I even think I saw Ron cringe when he said it.

The silence lasted a few more dreadful seconds before the swung open. All of our heads snapped to see Annabeth standing in the doorway, wearing her school uniform. I have to admit, she looked down right adorable in that outfit, even though she'd hit me if I ever thought of saying that out loud.

"Okay good, you're all decent. Come on the train just stopped, we're here." She told us, turning around to head off the train. I guess she sensed the tension, because she stopped half way through her turn and slowly turned back around so only her shoulders were facing us.

"Everything okay in here?" She asked, looking a tad bit concerned.

"Peachy." Harry sneered, pushing himself up and bellowing through the car, pushing Annabeth out of the doorway as he turned to walk down the aisle.

"What's his problem?" She asked, us looking at us like he had punched her in the face.

"I'll tell you later." I said, pushing myself up, giving her a look that screamed _drop it_. She got the message, because she quickly look like it never happened. She and I waited for everyone else to pile out of the car before I joined her.

"Stop." She told me, a sigh hidden throughout her words. I was about to ask her what was wrong, before she picked up my tie and started to tie it. I have to admit it was both embarrassing and _really_ attractive that she was doing that for me.

"You know you're going to have to wear one of these basically every day, right?" She told me, a smile playing on her lips. I just laughed and pulled her under my arm as we walked down the aisle of the train.

"That's what I've got you for."

_Leo_

So when we informed that we were going to a boarding school for wizards, everybody forgot to mention that the boarding school was a freaking _castle_.

Since we were technically first years, we were all lead to the edge of the lake with all the other first years as everyone else went the other way.

I have to admit, we were all a little embarrassed at first, but once we were on the tiny canoe and sailed off, I think we all forgot about that.

I couldn't believe it was our school at first, I thought it was just something really pretty castle that belonged to Your Highness that was a nice little sightseeing, but then we started to sail towards it. It wasn't until we were about halfway across the lake that I realized that that was in fact our school, and it was in fact real.

It was a beautiful sight to see. It looked like something pulled straight out of a Disney movie. The moonlight glittered off the lake and the castle was barely illuminated by the moonlight, though you could still see gold light twinkling through the windows. It looked like something one would dream about.

Only this time it was real. At one point I looked back to all of my friends, since all managed to squeeze on one boat. Everyone seemed about as mystified as I was, except for Percy and Hazel. Hazel was too seasick to enjoy anything and Percy kept looking down at the lake, running his hands through it and kept repeating, "You'll never believe what's down there." Over and over again. I think he had a conversation with a fish at one point.

When we all got off the boat and managed to pry Percy away from the lake, we followed our guide up the many, many stairs. The castle was bigger than I ever could have imagined, and I suddenly understood why everyone was so excited to go back.

We eventually made it to a torch lit hall way, and I remember when I passed the first painting. I was minding my own business when the _painting_ beside me moved and then proceeded to ask me "Aren't you a little old to be a first year?" I tried to keep my shock and fear down to a minimum, so I only jumped a little bit. I looked at the old oil painting to see a very pretty woman, made of oil paint, staring back at me with her hands on her hips. I just nodded my head without saying anything, trying not to make it to obvious that I wasn't sure what was going on. I then hurried away, not letting her say another word.

We eventually made it to the top of the stairs, where there was two massive doors sitting at the top. At the top of the stairwell was a skinny older woman wearing long robes that covered her shoes and a long point hat that you would see in a crappy kids Halloween costume. When we got closer, I could tell that she was one of those ladies who cared for her students, but she would not put up with anyone's shit.

When all of us made it to the top she cleared her throat and very proper voice, "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My name is Professor McGonagall, I am the transfiguration teacher and I am also head of the Gryffindor house. After we are done here, you will proceed into the room behind me, known as the great hall. When we arrive you all will be sorted into a house, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. You will spend most with your house, you will sleep in your house quarters, eat at your house table, and spend your free time in the house common room. Your house is something to take pride in, for it will be your home for the rest of your time here at Hogwarts, and I must warn you there will be no switching once the decision is made. We would also like to welcome our transfers all the way from America, and show them why Hogwarts is considered to be one of the best schools a young witch or wizard could attend." She stated, motioning to the eight of us, towering over the eleven year olds. "Now if you all will follow me."

She turned on her heal and with a flick of her wand, the massive doors swung open. The inside of the Great Hall was almost as spectacular as the outside of the school. There were four long tables in the huge room, all of which were lined with students in black robes, leaning in to get a good look at the new students.

"Holy shit." I heard Jason breathe. I turned around to find him staring at the ceiling with his mouth slightly parted. I looked up to see what he was staring at and I felt my mouth drop open as well.

The thing about the ceiling, was that there was no ceiling. The ceiling was like the sky, except it didn't match the dark one outside. The sky was darker than in midday light, but it was still a deep shade of blue. There were clouds placed all over the sky, and the stars shined brightly through them. The best way I could describe it was that it was magical (not literally, though that was most likely the case.)

Annabeth leaned in to me and whispered, "Hermione told me that they enchanted the ceiling to do that." Annabeth and Hermione had grew close over the past few days, they acted like they were best friends who had known each other for years. Hermione would sit and inform her of random things that she had learned in past years, and Annabeth was stuck to her like glue.

We reached the front of the room, our backs turned to most of the hall. I turned around to look for the Weasley's, but everyone looked exactly the same, so I gave up after about two seconds.

Then I looked up to see Dumbledore make his way to his fancy podium at the head of the hall. He glanced at us for a brief second, winked, and then cleared his throat. "Welcome back to Hogwarts! And for those just joining us for the first time tonight, we welcome you!" He exclaimed. The Hall erupted into a roar of applause. Dumbledore held up his hand after a few seconds, and the entire Hall silenced within a few seconds. This dude had power.

"Let the sorting begin." He said simply, as he stepped away from the podium, Professor McGonagall taking his place, a very old looking hat in her hand.

She set the hat down on the stole and the entire house silenced again, watching the hat with great focus.

I didn't understand why everyone was watching an old hat, I mean it was just a hat. But then it opened its…Mouth I think, and started to sing.

_Of course the hat sings, why wouldn't it?_ I thought to myself.

It was a rather long song, the one thing I found off about it was that it gave a warning that Hogwarts was in danger, and I couldn't help but feeling like the warning had something to do with us. After it was done, the Hall erupted into applause once more, only this time, it was rather hesitant, and I heard whispers coming from behind me.

Then the sorting began, the first girl, who looked like she was going to throw up, climbed on the stole and put the sorting hat on. After a few seconds it cried "GRYFFINDOR!" and the Gryffindor table broke out into applause, standing up and welcoming their new member.

It went on like that for all of the first years, there was a good number in Hufflepuff and Slytherin, though the entrances to Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were a bit low.

Once their sorting was over, we were the only ones left still standing. Dumbledore once again made his way up to the podium, switching places with McGonagall once again.

"Hogwarts School is starting a new program this year. We have agreed to bring in 8 students, all of whom are in their 5th year, to Hogwarts so they can experience different culture and a different way learning. All of these students are from America, and I have gotten a chance to speak to all of them. They are all wonderful children, and they will fit just fine. So please give a warm welcome to our newest students!" Dumbledore announced, motioning towards us. Most of the hall stood up, clapping and cheering louder than normal. The only table that didn't stand up was the Slytherin table, they just sat there and clapped along with everyone else, looking very annoyed.

I felt a huge smile grow on my face as I stood on my toes and fist pumped as they cheered, which made some of them cheer louder. I could hear someone sigh from the eight behind me, but I ignored it.

Dumbledore raised his hand again, and the crowd eventually grew silent, though it took longer that time.

"Nico Di Angelo." Dumbledore said, taking the liberty to announce our names himself rather than having McGonagall dot it. Nico had been hiding behind the group so no one could see him and when he came out to walk up on stage, his face was the same as always, cold and brooding.

He made his way up to the center of the hall, all eyes set on him. Dumbledore lifted the hat and Nico took a seat as the hat was placed on his head, and I suddenly wished I had a camera. There was a small few seconds of suspenseful silence, and I was almost surprised that the great hall could be that quite, even when the first years were being sorted, there were always a few kids whispering to each other.

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat bellowed. The Slytherin sable immediately stood up and cheered, much more enthusiastic than when we were introduced. I guessed that they only cheered for their own house.

I also cringed inside my mind, the guys' words echoing through my head on how the Slytherin house was the worst to be sorted into. I remember how much they said that they hated everything about them, and I honestly felt sorry for Nico as he walked over to the far side of the room to join his new housemates.

"Annabeth Chase." Dumbledore announced.

Annabeth strutted up to the stool confidently, showing no signs of nervousness at all. She sat down and had the hat placed on her head, and the silence lasted almost 30 seconds.

"SLYTHERIN!"

My hand unconsciously moved to my mouth as I suppressed a surprised laugh. Annabeth, a Slytherin? I did not see that one coming, I would have bet my life that she was going to be put in Ravenclaw, she was the daughter of Wisdom for crying out loud. Plus she didn't really fit the role of a Slytherin, Slytherins were cunning and manipulative, and Annabeth was…well…okay maybe she did belong in the Slytherin house.

After Annabeth joined Nico at the Slytherin table, Dumbledore announced Jason's name. As he made his way out to the center of the hall, I heard many girls start to giggle and whisper to each other. I looked back to Piper, who had obviously heard it, and she looked like she was ready to bash some heads in.

Jason sat on the stool, and the hat was on his head for no more than two seconds before it bellowed out "GRYFFINDOR!"

I was surprised at how fast he was sorted, considering it took the hat much longer to sort Annabeth and Nico. A huge grin played on Jason's lips as he got up and walked over to the Gryffindor table, where the Weasley's, Harry and Hermione were standing up and cheering, the twins on standing on the bench to welcome their new housemate.

"Alright settle down." Dumbledore told the Gryffindor table, who were the only ones left still cheering, most of it coming from our new friends.

Once they settled down, Dumbledore announced the next name.

"Percy Jackson."

Percy made his way to the stool confidently, and even though he was trying to look like it was no big deal, I could tell that he was nervous. I would be nervous if I were him to. I knew that he was most likely not going to be sorted into Slytherin, even though he obviously wanted to be in the same house as Annabeth. And it wasn't just because he wanted to be with his girlfriend, he was the only one who could calm Annabeth down after one of her night terrors. And even though she hasn't had one since the first incident, he being sorted into a different house would definitely cause a problem.

His sorting took almost as long as Annabeth's did, and after about 30 seconds of complete silence. Then the hat made its decision.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

_Hufflepuff, Percy a Hufflepuff? Seriously? _I thought to myself as I felt my eyes grow wide. I would have bet all the drachmas I had that he was going to be sorted into Gryffindor. I couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that the Son of the Sea, who had been responsible for the deaths of more things than I can count, had just been sorted into the house that was famous for being nice to everyone.

Apparently, Percy didn't see it coming either. He looked like he was still trying to process it as he got up to sit with the Hufflepuffs, who welcomed him with open arms.

"Hazel Levesque."

Unlike Annabeth, it was obvious that she was nervous. I knew that she wasn't found of having all of the attention drawn to her, and a crowd of about give or take 400 people was not helping her cause. Her eyes were wide like a deer in the headlights when she sat down and had the hat placed on her head.

It only took a few seconds to sort her, not as short as Jason but definitely shorter than Annabeth.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat yelled, the crowd erupting in applause once more. She smiled sheepishly as she stood up and walked over to the Hufflepuff table, taking a seat next to Percy.

"Piper McLean." Dumbledore yelled, silencing the crowd instantly. Piper strutted to the stool like she owned the place, and had the hat placed on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled, sending the Gryffindors into another huge roar of Applause. Piper looked like a huge weight had been lifted off of her chest as she ran over to the Gryffindor table, into her waiting boyfriends arms. They hugged for a second and then kissed in celebration, causing many girls who giggled when they first saw Jason jaws drop open in shock and disappointment, and it was probably one of the funniest things I had ever seen.

"Leo Valdez."

I snapped out of my laughing fit when I heard my name. I looked around to see everyone staring at me, and I suddenly became aware of the fact that there were a lot of pretty girls in the room, and I mean_ a lot_. And of course, as I made my way up to the stool, and there were no giggles coming from the audience, and I would have been surprised if there were. When I reached the stool I sat down with a smirk on my face as the hat was placed on my head.

A few seconds after the hat was placed on, I heard a voice echo in throughout my head. _Such an interesting mind, constantly looking to understand and comprehend things around you, you are a smart one indeed. And you share such a tragic past with your friends, I am truly sorry for all that you have endured._

_Uh…thanks?_ I thought back.

_None the less, I must warn you child, if you wish to succeed in in your quest you must be wary of everyone around you. The Dark Lord has returned, and he knows of your presence. Trust no one, for when he is near, no one is safe._

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat bellowed, send yet another roar of applause throughout the room. The hat was ripped off of my head, giving me no time to process what it had just told me. It took me a second, but I got off the chair and tried to look like nothing was wrong as I walked to the Ravenclaw table with a smile plastered on my face, as kids with blue and bronze striped ties were greeting me, motioning to an open seat.

As I sat down, I realized that I wasn't as convincing as I had liked to be, because a taller kid with a thick Scottish accent asked me, "You alright there mate, you look like you've just seen a boggart."

Even though I had no idea what 'boggart' meant, I snapped out of my train of thought and flashed him my signature smile, "Nah man, I'm just a little jittery, you know new school and all."

Everyone that could hear what I said stared at me like I had two heads, and nobody said anything in return. Feeling self-conscious, I heard Dumbledore's voice boom throughout the hall once more, calling the name of our last friend, "Frank Zhang."

Frank was red in the face as he sat down on the stool, and I could tell that he felt every eye that was watching him. Again it only took about two seconds to sort him, not long enough to give him some warning about how the Dark Lord had been added to the very long list of people who wanted to kill us.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat yelled, again sending the crowd into yet another round of applause, and frankly I was getting sick of clapping. Frank made his way over to the Gryffindor table, where he was greeted with a hug from Piper and a cap on the shoulder from Jason.

After that Dumbledore made a small speech, and then dinner was served. And when I say served I mean it magically appeared on our table, which I should have seen coming. We all started to eat, diving into the huge quantities of food. Naturally during the meal, I was bombarded with questions from curious kids, seeing that I was the only American to make it into Ravenclaw. The questions were mostly about what it was like in America, how I got to come here to Hogwarts, one girl even asked me if Jason was single. I wish I could say I held down my laugh when I saw her reaction when I told her he was hopelessly in love.

After the meal was over, Dumbledore announced a few rules that he said that we all had to follow. The main one I remembered was that the Forbidden Forest was in fact forbidden, and I couldn't wait until the eight of us got a chance to go exploring down there. Obviously to check for things that wanted to attack Harry, I defiantly did not want to go down there because the word "forbidden" was tempting as hell, defiantly not that reason.

He introduced some new teachers, one that would be filling until the usual professor returned who had a name somewhat along the lines of Professor Hags.

Then he introduced us to you royal bitch of a teacher, Professor Dolores Umbridge. First off, this woman looked more like a toad than a human. I'm pretty sure she's shorter than Coach was, she was dressed head to toe in a nauseating pink color. She was old and ugly, and her voice was probably the shrillest voice I have ever heard, and that's coming from a guy who was forced to play truth or dare with a bunch of Aphrodite's kids.

I thought I was being a bit too judgmental, but all feelings of guilt washed when she interrupted Dumbledore to talk to us. When she started telling us how "excited" she was through the new year with a mask of cheerfulness to cover her obvious disgust, I looked around and saw everyone's faces. I could tell by just their awestruck expressions that interrupting the headmaster when he was speaking was the worst thing you could possibly do, even if you were a teacher. I could tell that it was unspoken rule number one around here; you don't talk when Dumbledore is talking. That's it, no exceptions. Even I understood that from the moment I walked in, and she took the speech over like she already ran the school.

We had seen her for a total of five minutes and I already hated everything about her.

After Dumbledore cut her off, he sent us all off to bed. Hundreds of kids all stood up and started moving slowly off towards their corridors. Considering that I had no idea where to go, I looked around to see which direction all of my housemates were going, and apparently there were many ways to get to our dorms because they all were going in different directions.

"FIRST YEARS, FOLLOW ME!" I heard a voice yell across the room. I looked to a bigger kid standing on the table in Ravenclaw robes, waving his arms frantically so we all could see him. Remembering how much I hated the whole new kid thing, I jogged over to him, joining all of the 11 year olds who looked like they were about to shit their pants.

When I got over there, he looked down and did a headcount. When he counted all 11 first years and myself, he stopped yelling and got down off the table. He took a deep breath and exhaled, looking around to the new group of students he would be spending all year with.

"Well, welcome to Hogwarts everybody. My name is Robert, I am Ravenclaw's prefect. If you have any questions about how to get places, what teachers you should avoid, homework, just ask me that's why I'm here. Now if you'll all follow me, I can show you to our dormitories and common room." And with that he turned on his heel and head down one of the many corridors. We all followed wordlessly, the little kids either clinging to him or me, since we were the oldest.

We ended up entering a stairwell, and the word stairwell does it no justice. Not only was it about eight stories high, the stairs themselves were moving. The blocks were shifting from one side to another, students walking up the stairs as they were moving like nothing was weird. I was completely fascinated by it.

"Leo!" I heard Robert yell. I snapped out of my daze and saw the group about 5 paces in front of me, and I realized I was standing there staring at the stairs for a bit too long.

"Sorry, it's just…we don't have these back in America…their just amazing." I apologized, as I continued to gaze up at them.

"I'll tell you more about them later, let's go." He told me, and we followed him. I was really disappointed when we didn't walk up them. Instead we walked past them and walked up a normal, boring spiral staircase in what looked like one of the towers I saw on the boat ride here.

I took us about 2 minutes to get to the top, and by the time we got there, I concluded that that was way too many stairs to climb every day. Suddenly wishing that I had Jason's powers, we reached the top and many of the first years were out of breath.

I looked up and saw the rest of the Ravenclaws standing outside the door, looking very annoyed by the fact that they were still standing there.

"Why is no one in the room?" I asked, wondering if the door was locked and they had to wait for the maintenance guy to open it up.

"Since we are the house that strives in intelligence and learning, we have to solve a riddle in order to get in. The first of the year is always near impossible to figure out, one time we were standing out here for two hours before we could get in. But they get easier as the months go by. So make sure when you leave your rooms in the beginning of the day that you triple check to make sure you have everything, because if you get something important, you're not getting it back till that night." Robert told us, the look on his face told me that he wasn't too fond of this rule, and I can imagine why.

"Well what's the riddle?" I asked, seeing that everyone else was having trouble solving it.

A student who over heard me turned around, looking like she was done with everything.

"The riddle is:

_My first is often at the front door._

_My second is found in grains of bread._

_My third is what most people want._

_My whole is one of the united states._

_What am I? _

Nobody can figure it out, good luck new kid." She told me, before turning back to her friends, talking over what it could be.

My mind instantly started racing. At the front door could mean anything, a person, a key, a door mat, mail, a doorknob. The grains of bread could be something along the lines of wheat, rye, whole grain, pumpernickel, anything.

The third part could be love, power, money, control, respect, but what does any of that have to do with America? I mean none of that stuff even related to any of the states.

_Wait…_

What if when it said United States, it didn't mean the country. I mean there is no other United States of America that I know. But what if it weren't the United States, but a state of unity_. _

I think I physically reacted to my discovery, and some kids gave me some weird looks. I considered saying my revolution out loud, but my mind was racing to fast for me to speak.

I tried to put words together, completely forgetting my surroundings…man-wheat-love.

_No that makes no sense. _

Key-whole-power….doorknob-rye-control…doormat-rye-money.

_Wait…mat-rye-money_

Mat…rye…money…matryemoney…

Matrimony.

"Matrimony!" I yelled, causing everyone to stare stop the brainstorming with each other and stare at me.

It was quite for a second, then everyone's gaze switched to the door as it swung open behind them.

They all looked back at me, starting at me wide-eyed, amazed at how the first year got it in a matter of thirty seconds, when they couldn't figure it out with 10 minutes of thinking.

"How did you figure it out that quickly?" Robert breathed, giving me the same stare as everyone else.

"My mind goes at about 10,000 miles an hour." I told him, being completely serious.

"…That's fast, right?" He asked me, and I completely forgot that America was the only country that used miles instead of kilometers.

"Yeah, that's fast." I told him, hoping everyone over heard so they could understand me in the future, considering that I probably will being using that term again.

"Well how'd you figure it out?" A kid in front of me said impatiently

"It was simple when you really thought about it. When it said United States, it didn't mean the country. It meant a united state, as in a state of unity. After that I thought about it for a bit, I just started putting random words together. I got lucky with when I thought of doormat, rye, and money. Mat-rye-money, it sounds like matrimony, which is just another word for marriage." I explained, feeling all of their eyes press into me. They continued to stare before the same kid broke the silence.

"What's your name again Yankee?" He asked me, breaking the silence.

"Leo." I told him awkwardly.

"Let's go Leo! We can all go to sleep now!" He yelled, throwing an arm around my shoulder, and pulling me into the room. There were surprisingly a few whoops and hollers that came from behind me, and a few claps to as we all made our way into the common room.

I have to say, the common room was stunning, just like everything else in this place. It was a huge room with chairs and tables lining the outside. There were a few book shelves as well, along with a white marble statue of some important looing lady. Besides those few things, the room was completely open. It had a dark blue carpet, the color of the Ravenclaw house, along with many other Ravenclaw-spirt stuff. The room itself was round, with windows lining the walls every few feet giving us what I would assume to be a fantastic view of the entire campus, if it were light outside.

"Cool isn't it?" The kid said from behind me. I turned around to see the boy who called me a Yankee, he was a good four inches taller than me, his blond hair sweeping in front of his eyes. I could tell by the way he was standing that he was self-confident, but not in the bad way. He watched me, waiting to see what I was going to say.

"It's amazing, better than anything we have in America." I told him, looking around to take it all in.

"Wait until its light outside, the view is amazing as well." He told me, looking out the window as if he could see everything through the darkness of the night.

"My name's David by the way." He told me, the tone of his voice changing pitches, causing him to sound more attentive and awake.

"Well Dave, as intrigued as I am by this conversation, I'm dead tired. I'm gonna go to bed, could you show me where they are." I asked, scratching the back of my head, looking up towards him.

"Sure thing mate, just follow me." He told me, turning on his heel to walk up to a doorway at the other end of the room. Before we got there he turned around, like he just remembered something.

"Hey, what year are you in again." He asked me hesitantly.

"5th year." I answered, causing his face to light up.

"Same here! Oh this is great, we'll have a fantastic year." He told me, turning around as he spoke, jogging up the stairs.

"Yeah, I think so too."

**Okay before you all kill me for not putting all of the eight into Gryffindor, I never intended to put them there from the beginning, and it was way too easy. Would Annabeth make a great Ravenclaw? Absolutely. Would Percy make a great Gryffindor? No doubt about it. Would all of them make fantastic Gryffindors? YES THEY WOULD. But the thing is, their bravery is not what makes them original, it's those traits they had since day one that make them unique. I personally believe that they all became brave because they were forced to throughout their quests, because not all of them were brave in the beginning. It was Annabeth's use of her smarts to get what she wanted that made me put her into Slytherin. It was Percy's undying loyalty to his loved ones that made me put him in Hufflepuff. It was Leo's amazing knowledge of how mechanics work from a very young age that made me put him into Ravenclaw.**

**So basically if you don't like it, it's my preference and no one is forcing you to read this story.**

**ANYWAY, after taking the PSATs and going to homecoming (seriously, who's genius idea was it to schedule those on the same day?) I came home and finished this extremely long chapter, I hope you all enjoyed :)**

**(PS: Sorry if there's a lot of grammar mistakes, it's really late and I want to go to bed!)**


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